


Macross 30: Voices Across The Galaxy

by VF15_Banshee



Category: Macross - All Media Types, Macross 7, Macross Frontier, Macross II, Macross Plus, Macross Zero, Super Dimension Fortress Macross
Genre: Crossover, F/M, Robots, Transformation, Valkyrie - Freeform, variable fighter
Language: English
Status: In-Progress
Published: 2013-07-28
Updated: 2014-07-09
Packaged: 2017-12-21 14:22:06
Rating: Teen And Up Audiences
Warnings: No Archive Warnings Apply
Chapters: 8
Words: 18,806
Publisher: archiveofourown.org
Story URL: https://archiveofourown.org/works/901299
Author URL: https://archiveofourown.org/users/VF15_Banshee/pseuds/VF15_Banshee
Summary: <blockquote class="userstuff">
              <p>2060 AD. One year after the war between the Macross Frontier fleet and the Vajra, the galaxy is settling back into peace. But a discovery on a backwater colony planet could spell the end of the galaxy as we know it. Young SMS pilot Leon Sakaki, together with the legendary songstresses and pilots, must confront this new evil and stop it before the galaxy is changed forever.</p>
            </blockquote>





	1. Prologue: 2060 AD

**Notes for the Chapter:**

> As you've probably surmised, this is something of a novelization of the recently of the PS3 game Macross 30. Why? Why not? :)
> 
> In all seriousness though, the game was awesome enough that I just kind of felt the need to do this. I know that game adaptions can be somewhat boring, especially if you've already beaten said game. So I decided to add a few twists to this one to give it its own unique flavor. I am in no way saying that Macross 30 was a bad game, I'm just trying to make this something worth reading, as I said.
> 
> There will be a few changes but all relatively minor, such as adding in the Macross 2 characters as well as a few others. Also a few of the Valkyries that oddly absent from the game such as the VF-4 Lightning III and the VF-5000 Star Mirage. Might even toss in the VA-3.
> 
> Also, since Macross is so intrinsically connected to music, I'll be making recommendations every so often, sometimes at the start of chapter, sometimes within it. For the beginning part of this chapter, I would recomend "Voices" from Macross Plus.
> 
> Lastly, I was writing a story just before Macross 30 that was kind of a crossover between Macross and Star Wars. I've decided to eventually integrate that story into Macross 30 AFTER the main story. Bonus chapters if you will.
> 
> Now, without further ado, Macross 30.

_The first word in my dreams_

_I could clearly see_

_Planet Eden right beyond the sky_

_Beautiful and sad is this story I tell_

_Of the winged travellers eager…_

 

* * *

 

_The year is 2060 AD, fifty years since the great war between Earth and the alien Zentradi. Since that time, humanity has joined together with their Zentradi brothers and sisters and spread across the stars, seeking new worlds to settle. It was on one of those new worlds, Sepheela, that my sister and I were born. However, this expansion wasn’t without sacrifice. Space is vast and home to new and strange forms of life. Recently, the Macross Frontier fleet clashed with an alien civilization known as the Vajra. Though the fleet was faced with extinction, just as in the first space war, heroes arose to challenge fate and lead their people to victory. Those heroes didn’t come from the United Forces though; they came from a private military company known as SMS or Strategic Military Services. Their actions in the war against the Vajra not only revealed the treachery of the Galaxy Fleet Conspiracy and saved the people of Frontier but also uncovered the truth of the Vajra’s hive-mind. This, among other reasons was why I chose to join SMS. My name is Leon Sakaki._

_One year has passed since that war and the galaxy has settled into a relative peace once more. My current mission is to deliver data on the new VF-25 Messiah variable fighter to the SMS branch on the planet Ouroboros. Little did I realize that this obscure backwater of a planet would be the site of a battle that would hold the fate of the galaxy in peril once again and the greatest adventure of my, or anyone’s, lifetime. Ouroboros was also the place where I met them…_

* * *

The Ouroboros solar system was home to many natural wonders. Situated in what had once been a planetary nebula, the last wisps of the stellar gasses glowed against the black of pace and the innumerable stars.

There were a couple of planets in the system, besides the only inhabitable one. One was a rocky wasteland, notable only for an enormous collision that had taken place in the past, gouging out a huge, cratered scar in the planet’s surface. The other was a beautiful gas giant with green and gold swirled clouds and a faint ring, just like Jupiter’s. But the centerpiece was of course Ouroboros itself, standing out boldly against the black, all blue, green, white and brown that was the universal indicator of a world capable of bearing life. A quintet of moons orbited the planet; the largest and most dramatic surrounded by an intricate ring system very much like Saturn’s. Two of the moons were a binary pair, orbiting each other as they orbited Ouroboros.

 

A burst of color blossomed in space near Ouroboros and from the swirling energy emerged a Variable Fighter. The fighter was sleek and graceful, colored in white and turquoise with the words PROPHECY spelled out on its forward fuselage and YF-25 on the tailfins. It was additionally armored with a Super FAST pack system, lending it extra firepower and engines.

In the cockpit, the pilot toggled open his communication to a pre-specified frequency as he soared towards the beautiful world below.

“Siegfried-1, confirm Fold Out. This is Lt. Leon Sakaki of SMS Sepheela to SMS Ouroboros branch, requesting landing clearance.”

There was no response, just a hint of static over his headphones. Leon frowned; was no down on the planet monitoring communications?

“SMS Ouroboros, do you read me, over?” Again, no reply. Leon began to grow somewhat concerned as he checked the comm. lines again. He glanced to the side of the center console where a holographic photo projector was mounted. The glowing holograph showed Leon dressed in NUNS pilot suit, grinning widely, his arm clamped around a white-haired young man. A girl with dark magenta hair was half-kneeling in front of the two boys, perhaps because she had just stepped into frame after activating the holocam. She was smiling as well and making a V-sign with her right hand.

“Strange, I’m not getting anything from the planet, just static. I wonder what’s…?” his line of though was interrupted as the alarms on his control panel blared at him, indicating that approaching craft had painted him with a target lock! Immediately he jerked the stick and feathered the foot pedals, dodging just as streaks of particle beam weapons fire flashed past.

“What in the-?! SMS Ouroboros, this is Siegfried-1, I am under attack! Do you copy? Damn, they can’t hear me at all. There must be a high-grade ECM jamming transmissions. Well, in that case, I’ll just have to engage these hostiles!”

Leon goosed the throttle and swung his fighter around. His enemies, the computer identifying them as QF-4000 Ghost drones according to their silhouettes, also pivoted to face him, juking in the geometric pattern that Ghost drones were infamous for.

Most pilots feared to engage Ghost drones with their insane maneuverability, but Leon was no ordinary pilot. The three ghosts fired a burst of micro-missiles from their launchers, causing Leon to pull up and release flares. He corkscrewed his YF-25 around in a maneuver that was only possible in space and saw what his instruments were already telling him: a few missiles had survived and were heading straight for him! Leon cut all thrust from his engines, hit the weapon selector toggle on his flightstick and fired the two Mauler RÖV-25 25mm beam machine guns mounted on the sides of his intakes. The beam guns weren’t the standard loadout but Leon preferred them to the bullet-firing alternates. The beams sliced the remaining missiles to ribbons and then Leon was after the Ghosts. One of the drones made the mistake of staying still too long and Leon opened fire not only with the beam guns but with the Howard GU-17A 58mm gatling gunpod mounted on his fighter’s belly. The storm of beams and bullets unleashed from this shredded the Ghost. His alarms sounded again and he saw on his radar that the other two Ghosts had come around behind him. Shifting the throttle stick, Leon caused the YF-25’s engine nacelles to swing out from the main body, forming legs. This redirected thrust and with the help of maneuvering jets, flipped his fighter around. This operation mode was known as GERWALK.

For this head-to-head confrontation, Leon wisely didn’t waste time trying to shot the individual Ghosts down with gunfire; to try would have been suicide. Instead he switched over to micro-missiles and waited for the lock and then puled the trigger. Twin doors on the armor behind his cockpit sprang open and forty-two micro-missiles rocketed forward towards the Ghosts, trailing a curling blossom of contrails that were known to pilots as an ‘Itano Circus,’ after a pilot from the old _SDF-1 Macross_. The timing was actually just barely in Leon’s favor as, given another half-second, the Ghosts would’ve launched their own missiles. As it was, the two drones split off and began to zig-zag crazily, trying to throw off the missiles. But there were too many of them and both Ghosts died in short-lived blooms of fire and shrapnel.

“Well, that takes care of the Ghosts. Thanks to the jamming, I can’t read their IFFs. I wonder who launched them…?”

* * *

What Leon couldn’t know because of the jamming was that the people who had launched those Ghosts at him were actually New UN Spacy. Orbiting near the battle was a NUNS pocket-carrier by the name of _Godiva._ On the carrier’s launch ramp sat a dark blue variable fighter that bore a strong resemblance to Leon’s YF-25. Inside the cockpit, the pilot calmly watched as the Ghost drones were destroyed.

“Ghost-02, Ghost-03 destroyed. The enemy is holding above the planet,” reported the ship’s CIC.

The pilot’s eyes narrowed. Only someone of exceptional skill could take down three Ghosts that quickly.

“CIC, is the enemy fighter descending towards the Yurva Arga arctic site?”

“Negative. His previous course indicates a destination in the Julia Islands.”

On the pilot’s center screen a comm. window popped up, showing the face of an older Zentradi man with white, slicked-back hair and an artificial eye.

“Even if the enemy is not headed towards our headquarters, it still needs to be dispatched. We’re about to enter a critical phase and we cannot be interrupted.”

“Yes, commander. _Godiva_ I’m launching.”

* * *

 Leon had just gotten back on course when his alarms blared again. He gaped in surprise when the silhouette showed up on his monitor as a fighter that had only ever been seen in the _Macross Frontier_ fleet.

“A YF-29?! What’s that doing here?”

He didn’t have time to wonder much more as the new enemy fighter immediately opened fire on him. As he dodged the YF-29’s fire, Leon very quickly began to realize why the YF-29 had become such a famous part of the Vajra war.

“I don’t know if I can keep up with this guy. He’s a monster! His Valkyrie must have much greater specs than my YF-25! And it looks like he’s using some kind of Super Pack as well!”

In the cockpit of the YF-29, the pilot was taking note of Leon’s fighting style. He glanced at the holograph mounted on his side console… a holograph identical to the one Leon had.

_Could it be?_

The YF-29 pilot did not let his personal musings get in the way of his duty however. He calmly locked on missiles and fired a burst from his launchers. Leon, when he saw the missiles coming, cursed richly and let fly with the last of his flares. He throttled down and then jammed the throttle forward again, punching the afterburners for good measure. The YF-25 leapt away from the oncoming missiles, the cockpit EX-Gear and ISC system straining to take off as much of the g forces from Leon as possible. Most of the missiles took the bait and spent themselves on the flares. A few re-directed themselves towards Leon but he activated the twin co-axial laser guns mounted behind his cockpit in Fighter Mode. They traced bright electric blue lines in space, snuffing out the remaining missiles.

“Yeah!” Leon cried in exultation. His relief was short-lived however. He’d allowed his concentration to slip for a moment and that was all the YF-29 pilot needed. Leon’s YF-25 rocked violently as it was peppered with beam fire. Alarms shrieked and Leon frantically wrestled with the flightstick as his fighter began to dive towards the planet before him.

“Dammit! Careless idiot!” he growled to himself.

The YF-29 pilot hung back, regarding his work.

“Not enough to destroy you outright, but if you are who I think you are,” he thought, eyes narrowing, “you should be able to get out of this one.”

* * *

 The situation didn’t look good for Leon as his fighter arced towards Ouroboros; smoke trailing from the fighter’s rear. Leon thought he might just be able to get things under control when something exploded behind him, causing the YF-25 to lurch drunkenly off course.

“I’m… I’m not going down like this!” Leon growled as he fought to get the fighter back under control. He punched a switch on his control board and the magnetic clamps holding his Super Pack disengaged, flinging the damaged parts away from his fighter, the booster pods exploding a moment later. But even with the damaged pack ejected, his fighter had suffered severe damage and refused to come under control. Detachedly, Leon noted the majesty of the island-scape he was falling towards and briefly he thought that it wasn’t a half-bad resting place.

His YF-25 continued its inexorable descent towards the lush planet below…

**Notes for the Chapter:**

> Next time the real meat and potatoes of the story begins. See you next Deculture!


	2. The Zentradi Girl

**Summary for the Chapter:**

> Leon wakes up to a beautiful woman. The woman turns out to be the Zentradi head of the local SMS branch and wants a little favor from Leon...

**Notes for the Chapter:**

> No specific music cues for this chapter. If you own the game, you could listen to some of the BGM.

**PART 1: PLANET OUROBOROS**

* * *

 

** Chapter 1:  **

** The Zentradi Girl **

****

_Everything was burning. Leon shouldered his way past the technicians and emergency personnel as they scrambled to put out the fires. He saw his sister Mia and Rod Baltomar come stumbling out of a corridor, their white flightsuits smudged with soot, as was Rod’s platinum blond hair. The sight lifted Leon’s spirits; when Mia had first started dating Rod, one of their fellow pilots, Leon had initially acted the overprotective big brother. But Rod had won him over with his quiet devotion to Mia and, just as importantly, his skill as their wingman. Normally a romantic relationship between pilots in the same squad would have been frowned upon, but NUNS had been getting a bit lax in recent years with enforcing the little regulations._

_“Leon, how’s Area B?” asked Rod, his voice hoarse from the smoke._

_“Not good. Area B got hit the hardest by the attack. There might still be people in there but it’d be suicide to try and get at them.”_

_“Leon, don’t be so cold-hearted!” chided Mia, “If it were you in there I’d move heaven and earth to get to you! We can’t just give up on our comrades so easily!” Before Rod or Leon could do anything to stop her she turned and ran in the direction Leon had come from._

_“Wait, Mia, it’s too dangerous, let the fire crews handle it! MIA!”_

* * *

 Leon’s eyes snapped open and his hand jerked forward, outstretched towards his sister. But he was not actually in that burning base anymore. Blinking he looked around and saw that he was laying atop a reclining bed in what was clearly some kind of sickbay. But where exactly? The last thing he could remember was being on approach to Ouroboros in his YF-25…

The crash! He hadn’t been able to prevent his YF-25 from auguring into the planet and had ejected at the last second! But after that was a blank…

He pushed himself into a sitting position that allowed him to get a better view out of the window. Nothing but blue ocean and blue sky out there. Was he on a ship then? He caught a flicker of movement out of the corner of his eye and saw an island slip into view from the left side of the window. There was just one strange thing about this island though, it wasn’t down in the water, it was floating just about level with Leon’s window! Before he had time to gape at this site any further, he heard the hiss of a door opening, footsteps and a woman’s voice.

“So what exactly do you need me to do?”

There are several crates of parts waiting at one of our drop-offs. We’re a bit stretched at the moment so could you please pick them up?” replied the tinny voice of a woman which sounded like it was coming a mobile phone.

The woman then came around the curtain that was blocking off Leon’s view of the rest of the sickbay. He felt like his brain had locked up as he unabashedly stared at the young woman. She was most definitely NOT a nurse, not in that outfit. She wore a magenta and red vest with the SMS logo that barely covered and contained her very ample chest, leaving a large swath of flat, toned stomach on display, very brief short-shorts that strangely seemed to have suspenders attached to them just dangling down her hips and legs covered in black stockings that went up mid-thigh… legs that seemed to go on forever as far as Leon was concerned. Combined with bright, bubblegum-pink hair and ice-blue eyes set in a lovely, heart-shaped face and it wasn’t hard to imagine that this young Zentradi girl, the ears were a dead giveaway, caused a sensation wherever she went.

She was indeed speaking into a cat-shaped mobile phone, which was projecting a hologram of another young woman with violet hair but the angle of the hologram prevented Leon from getting a good look.

“Well, I’ll have to think about it. No pressure right?”

“Eh?! Hang on a minute…” but the violet-haired girl’s response was cut short as the pink-haired girl hung up.

“Hmm? Oh, you’re awake,” she said, finally noticing that Leon was sitting up in bed and staring at her.

“You gave us quite a scare… Mr. Leon Sakaki.” She said with a bright smile.

Leon stared a moment longer then something in his brain seemed to snap back into place.

“A Zentradi woman?” he said dumbly. _Smooth move Lt. Obvious!_

“A zentradi woman,” affirmed the girl, “I take it you haven’t met many before?” she asked with a slight smirk.

“Oh, uh, I have it’s just that… sorry but I’m a little confused… so, who are you, how did I get here and where is here?” he said, the questions tumbling out of him as his sleep-fogged brain finally recovered from the sight of the lovely Zentradi.

“Honestly, you have your life saved by a beautiful woman and she takes precious time out of her day to care for you and she doesn’t even get a thank you. I think I deserve one, yes?” she said huffily.

Leon cursed inwardly at his lack of manners.

“…Of course, you’re right. Let me introduce myself. I’m Leon Sakaki, a pilot from SMS Sepheela. My current assignment at SMS is as test pilot for a YF-25 Prophecy. How’s that?” he said, smiling for effect.

“Not bad,” replied the girl, returning his smile. _Wow, she looks beautiful when she smiles! Wait, what are you thinking Leon! You just met her! You don’t even know her name yet!_

“Let me return the favor. I’m Aisha Blanchette, the one who saved you from that crash.”

“The crash? Yeah… that YF-29 came out of nowhere after I beat those Ghosts and then…

“Hey, don’t strain yourself too much, too quickly,” she said, gently helping him out of the bed, “That was a nasty ejection and you got hurt pretty bad.”

“So I survived through a miracle, huh? Hang on, if I survived ejecting, what happened to my plane?”

“Come with me and I’ll show you.”

* * *

 She led him through several corridors and then into a large hangar area. Leon was beginning to wonder what kind of ship this was as the hangar was filled with half-disassembled (or perhaps half-assembled) Valkyrie fighters. She led him to a cordoned off corner of the hangar where the remains of his once-beautiful YF-25 lay in a slagged heap.

“…There’s not much left is there?”

“I guess not. But don’t worry, you haven’t failed your mission just yet.”

“Huh? What? What do you mean I haven’t failed?”

“Your fighter was carrying detailed information on the YF/VF-25 wasn’t it? I recovered it before the computer completely fried with my AI implant.”

“What?! How on earth did you do that when it’s this badly damaged? And how do you have an implant?”

“Your questions are getting a little impertinent Lt. Leon Sakaki,” Aisha said with a frown.

“I have an implant because I need it to help me do my job. My full title is Director Aisha Blanchette of SMS Ouroboros, also captain of this ship, the _Gefion._ Does that answer your questions?” she said, a little testily.

“I’m not doing this right am I?” Leon said sheepishly, rubbing the back of his bruised head, “But yes, that does explain a lot.”

“No problem, just so we’re clear where everyone stands,” replied Aisha cheerfully.

“Well then, thank you very much for saving my life and the data Madam Director Aisha.”

“Hehe, no need to be formal, I was just playing with you a bit. As long as we’re clear on who’s in charge, just call me Aisha,” said with bright smile of hers.

“Alright then Aisha! So this has been wild but I need to get back to Sepheela as soon as possible. Do you have a Valkyrie with a Fold Booster that I could borrow?” Leon asked, looking around at the jumbled airframes.

“Oh, you need to leave so soon? You can’t stay for a bit?”

“No, not really. They’ll be missing me on Sepheela…”

“Couldn’t you please do a little favor for your rescuer first?” she asked with hands clasped together, an adorable pleading expression on her face.

_Geez she goes from stern to happy to pleading so quick!_

“Uh, yeah, I suppose I could. I’m behind schedule anyway, plus I’m not looking forward to telling my bosses that the Prophecy is wrecked…”

“You’ll do it then? Thank you, Leon!”

She bounded off down towards the other end of the hangar with Leon in pursuit, talking as she went.

“The mission is for a friend of mine who had some very important goods stolen from her by bandits. The goods are all in these big heavy containers but they were able to locate the drop points where the bandits left them. I assume she and her people are out dealing with the bandits right now, but we’re going to pick up the containers before anyone else messes with them. Got it so far?”

“Sounds simple enough. So do you have a Valkyrie for me to use for this…?”

“Right here!” she said, proudly gesturing open-armed at a blue-and-white Valkyrie.

Leon couldn’t quite tell what model it was; it bore a resemblance to the original VF-1 Valkyrie, but was larger and longer. It also appeared to have a cockpit for two.

“What is it?” he asked.

“It’s a vintage VF-0D Phoenix, from the Unification Wars on Earth. My deck chief acquired it in a game of cards with…” Aisha’s explanation was cut off as someone shouted across the hangar.

“Oh no you don’t Aisha! You’re not sending up a nugget in my Phoenix just ‘cause we ain’t got enough planes around here!”

Leon turned to see a tall, almost comically thin man with some kind of… scarf or something around his neck come storming up to them. Despite his lankiness, his face was rounded and his cheeks were flushed. He wore a white and orange technicians jumpsuit and a pair of brown gloves that were both stained with innumerable oil, grease and who-knows-what-else stains and he carried a thick leather tool belt on his waist, festooned with tools of all nations. His hair wasn’t free of the grime either, liberally streaked and smudged through the wild, fly-away locks, strangely blond at the root but then fading into red. He glared angrily at Leon and for the first time Leon noticed that it wasn’t a scarf the man wore about his neck, but some kind of furry, one-eyed, snake-like creature.

“Um, I’m not a rookie Chief. I was piloting a YF-25…”

“Yes, the YF-25 that’s now in _ruins_ on my deck. You must be very talented. Anyhow, you’re not touching my baby!”

“Gerrol,” said Aisha in a long-suffering tone, “weren’t you just telling me the other day that your fondest wish was to see this Valkyrie in combat again?

“Well, yes… but I… I don’t see you offering your plane to him!”

Aisha crossed her arms and adopted an offended attitude.

“That’s because my plane is for me to fly. She’d chafe under this guy’s rough hands. No offense Leon,” she said, winking at him.

“Ugh, I’m not going to convince you am I? Alright fine, but you!” he said, rounding on Leon, “If you so much as put the tiniest little scratch on this priceless piece of aviation history…”

“Oh stop being so dramatic, Gerrol, he’ll be fine.” With that, Aisha strode over to the other side of the plane and single-handedly lifted a boarding ladder from the tools and parts stacked along the sides of the plane.

“Well, what are you two waiting for? Let’s get this Valkyrie ready to fly!”

As Gerrol and Leon scramble to help her, Aisha attempted to position that ladder on the lip of the Phoenix’s cockpit. Suddenly Leon was there, his hands helping to guide the ladder into place. Aisha smiled at him and he grinned back.

“Hmmm, you may or may not think of this as an inconvenience, but perhaps you should change first?” she said, her smile widening into a devious smirk.

“Huh?” Leon looked down and his face flushed scarlet. In his disorientation and the rush of conversation with Aisha, and perhaps a great many other things where Aisha was concerned, he’d forgotten that this whole time, he’d still been dressed in a hospital gown.

“Ah… right, I’ll just… go change then, ok?” he stammered, backing away from her. Aisha winked at him and he turned and fled.

“See?” grumbled Gerrol, pulling a cigarette and lighter from some random pocket and lighting up, “damn fool forget he was practically naked. My poor Phoenix…”

Aisha just sighed and rolled her eyes, catching a glimpse of Leon retreating through a hatchway.

_It’ll be nice to have a new face around here, one that isn’t a grumpy Zolan. A very good-looking face at that!_

**Notes for the Chapter:**

> If you happen to own the game, you'll notice the fact that Gerrol is an OC. I swear, he's not named after that dude from Jak and Daxter; that only occurred to me after the fact!
> 
> As was mentioned Gerrol is a Zolan. The Zolans are a race encountered for the first and, so far, only time in the OVA Macross Dynamite 7. I included him mostly for the fact that if you think about it, there's no way that Leon, Mina and Aisha could run that ship, maintain and build Valkyries and the 1,001 other jobs aboard a military vessel without at least a skeleton crew. As for why there would be a skeleton crew aboard the Gefion, well, you'll find out in the next few chapters.
> 
> See you next Deculture!


	3. Bandits and The Hunter License

**Summary for the Chapter:**

> The world of Ouroboros begins to unfold before Leon and also traps him there. Things will only get more interesting...

**Notes for the Chapter:**

> Not much for the beginning here. I would recommend Dog Fighter from the original Macross soundtrack when Leon engages the bandits.

As far as Leon was concerned, the VF-0 Phoenix might have been state-of-the-art 50 years ago, but to him it was slow and flew like a boat. Still it was all he had at the moment so he wouldn’t complain… too much.

He was just about to pick up the last crate of supplies that Aisha had sent him to pick up. It was slow, boring work. He could to the site quick enough in fighter mode but in order to get the crates back he had to fly in the less aerodynamic GERWALK mode. Still, he was on the last container and then Aisha had said they would go to the nearby town of Daoren and get him a Hunter License, which he apparently needed.

Just as he transformed the Valkyrie, his alarms blared. His radar screen showed that he had two VF-1 Valkyries flying towards him.

“Aisha, I have two contacts inbound, broadcasting unknown IFFs.”

“Be on guard Leon. They’re likely some of the bandits that stole this stuff in the first place.”

“Well then, I’ll have to greet them properly,” Leon grinned.

The two Valkyries, which looked fairly shabby and beat up, unlike Leon’s practically spotless Phoenix, hovered to a stop in front and above Leon in GERWALK, while Leon stood in front of the crate in battroid mode.

“Oy, what the hell’re you doing here? You another of those Hunter Guild slags stealin’ our stuff?!” demanded one of the bandits.

“Uh, he’s not Hunter Guild, Jake. He reads as SMS,” returned his more nervous sounding partner.

“Same difference! Now Mr. SMS, are you gonna hand over our stuff, or do we have to blow you into bloody chunks?!”

“Sure,” Leon retorted, still grinning, “come and get it.”

The fools actually believed him and began descending, which was when Leon fired off four of his anti-air missiles. The missiles, not actually locked on, streaked up into the sky. An expensive gambit, but it paid off as the bandits immediately panicked and split off. Still grinning, Leon lined up his Phoenix’s GPU-9 35mm gunpod on one of the bandits and opened fire. The poor VF-1 was shredded and crashed to the ground in flames. Leon quickly turned to line up on his second target but found that that one was fleeing on afterburners.

“SMS scum! Ganeth will hear about this!!” the bandit yelled and then cut off communications.

“Ganeth? Who’s Ganeth?” asked Leon.

“Ganeth? Don’t worry about him. He’s just an idiot,” responded Aisha, her image on his monitor taut and frowning.

“Is he like the local leader of the bandits or something?” pressed Leon as his Phoenix lifted the  final crate.

“Something like that, yes. Now bring the last crate back and we can take it over to the Hunter Guild and get you your license.”

* * *

 

 After Leon had landed back aboard the _Gefion_ , and Gerrol was busy inspecting every angle of the fighter and… cooing to it… Leon was about to head up to the bridge when he met Aisha coming into the hangar.

“Welcome back Leon! I see you didn’t have any trouble.”

“Not much. The VF-0 isn’t too bad but it’s a lot slower than what I’m used to. But now that that’s all done with, is there something space-worthy that I can use to get back to Sepheela?” Leon began to grow uneasy as Aisha smiled nervously at him.

“Well, about that. You see Leon, you’ve arrived on Ouroboros at a very interesting time. This planet, as you might have noticed, is very unusual. Take the moons for example. Moons as close to Ouroboros as the ones we have should be causing all sorts of havoc… but they don’t. And I’m sure you’ve noticed our floating islands.”

“Yeah, kinda hard to miss,” replied Leon neutrally, wondering where Aisha was going with this.

“Well it’s all part of the strange phenomenon that make this planet unique and every so often, those strange Fold disturbances coalesce and form what we call the Ouroboros Aura… which completely cuts us off from the rest of the galaxy. In other words, you’re totally stuck here!” she said the last part as a kind of cheer, trying to soften the blow. There was a pause. It wasn’t a long pause, about one second and then Leon blurted out, “What?!”

“Yup, it’s true. Though I guess we’re not _completely_ cut off, but it takes something the size and power of a Macross-type ship to get through the aura surrounding the planet. And that’s definitely NOT the _Gefion_.”

“So how long will I be stuck here then?” asked Leon, a little bit of hysteria creeping into his voice.

“Who knows?” said Aisha, shrugging, “The Ouroboros Aura can some last from a few weeks up to a year.”

“A year!” cried Leon.

“Don’t worry, there’s plenty of work here to keep you busy,” said Aisha, making a calming gesture with her hands, “I can transfer you into SMS Ouroboros officially and then once we get the license from Leilong, you’ll be good to go.”

“Doesn’t sound like I have much of a choice. Alright, well let’s get this license thing taken care off.”

“Great! I’ll put my pilot suit on and we’ll head over to Daoren!” said Aisha enthusiastically and ran off towards the pilot’s ready room and lockers.

“You can fly too?” Leon called after her.

“Of course! I’m not just the pretty face behind the desk!”

* * *

 

 Leon was further impressed when they were on the _Gefion’s_ launch ramps, ready to take off.

“That’s… a VF-19 Excalibur!” he exclaimed.

Aisha was indeed piloting the famous mass-production model of the YF-19 variable fighter prototype that had been involved in the Sharon Apple incident.

“Yup. If your VF-0D is Gerrol’s baby, then this one’s mine. Well, one of them,” replied Aisha.

“One of them? What do you mean?” asked Leon.

“Uh-uh,” said Aisha, waggling a finger at him, “that would be telling. Now, are you ready to go check out the islands?”

“Ready!”

 

The flight to Daoren was uneventful thankfully and it gave Leon a chance to take in the sights of the Julia Islands. Apparently they had been named after one of the very first colonists when they had arrived here about 20 years ago. They not only had the natural beauty of a tropical island chain but many of them were floated gently in the sky. Combined with the moons, which hung low and large in the sky and it was breathtaking landscape.

As they approached Daoren, Leon was initially somewhat confused. Aisha has said there was a town here but all Leon could see was a sort of hangar complex. There wasn’t even a proper runway, so they had to land in GERWALK mode. Aisha explained that it was because all the towns and cities on Ouroboros were built underground, mostly to preserve the planet’s incredible natural beauty.

After a short trip down an elevator, and a walk through a bustling shopping district, they arrived at an office that had a stylized logo mounted above it proudly proclaiming HUNTER GUILD. Entering through the sliding door, they found a suite of offices but no one in sight.

“There has to be someone that can help us…” began Aisha but then a door opened in the back and a violet-haired woman stepped through. Leon recognized her as the woman that Aisha was talking to earlier but now that he got a good look at her, he imagined that she might be even younger than Aisha and himself.

“Hello there! Ah, Aisha! What brings you here?” she said. She had a pronounced accent that Leon couldn’t place.

“Leilong! What are you doing out of the guild headquarters in Britai City?” asked Aisha, clearly surprised.

“Oh, just checking up on things out here after that bandit raid.”

“I see. Well in that case, could you get ahold of a Hunter License?”

“A license? But you already have one, or is it for your new friend here?”

“Yes, it is.”

“I see! Let me introduce myself,” she said, bowing formally to Leon, “I am Mei Leilong, master of the Hunter’s Guild based out of Britai City, capital of Ouroboros, at your service.”

“I’m Lt. Leon Sakaki of SMS, pleased to meet you as well,” replied Leon, returning her bow.

“Now about the license,” began Leilong as she sat down at the front desk and began typing at a keyboard, which activated a holographic screen, “We usually give SMS pilots a Class-B or A License, if they can provide the credentials?”

Both Aisha and Leon shook their heads.

“Leon’s from off-world, so we can contact Sepheela thanks to the Aura. But I can vouch for him!”

Well… normally I couldn’t take just your word… but since we’re best friends I’ll compromise and give him a Class-C . How’s that?”

“What’s the difference?” asked Leon.

“We group the job assignments we have available here at the Guild into different ranks, designated by a letter,” Leilong explained, “It goes from D to S. D through B jobs are usually not too complicated but anything marked A or S is guaranteed to be lots of trouble. As a Class-C, you can take any jobs from our boards marked D or C but nothing else. The more jobs you complete, the higher a license we can give you. There are even SS-class and SSS-class jobs but only an experienced group of S-class license holders are even _considered_ for those jobs.”

As she finished up her explanation, the computer chimed. Leilong reached under the desk and pulled out a glossy white card and handed it to Leon.

“There you go! Got everything clear so far?”

“I assume that since these are basically bounties, there will be a reward?” asked Leon.

“Just so. The rewards vary according to the rank of the job. Well, you’re all set! Good luck Leon-chan!”

There was another one of those pauses.

“Leon- _chan?_ I… when did I become Leon-chan?”

“Oh don’t mind her,” said Aisha, grinning wickedly, “Leilong is very clever about it, but she’s actually far, far older than just about everyone on the planet. Isn’t that right o-ba-sa-n?”

Leilong looked like Aisha had just punched her in the gut.

“Wha-? You… how dare you…” she spluttered. Her expression hardened and she glared back at Aisha, who was giggling silently.

“Leon-chan, I hope you do well on your jobs. You’ll need the money so Aisha- _chan_ can finally fix all those old wrecks on the _Gefion_.”

That snapped Aisha out of her giggling and she looked at Leilong in outrage.

“Wrecks?! Those aren’t wrecks, they’re just… not finished yet! I can’t believe you’d question the Beautiful Genius of SMS!”

“Beautiful Genius?” shot back Leilong, “What kind of Beautiful Genius has a ship full of Valkyries that can’t fly?”

“Leon, pay no attention to Leilong, her age has _caused her to go senile,”_  Aisha ground out.

“Um, I’m just going to go check on the Valkyries…” said Leon, feeling the tension in the air thickening by the second.

“Oh ho ho ho, insults eh? Two can play at that game Aisha!”

“Ha ha! Bring it on, Leilong!”

“Yeah… I’m just gonna go check on those planes,” murmured Leon as he hastily made his getaway.

**Notes for the Chapter:**

> Those who've played the game will probably note that I'm compressing a few things here. The first three missions of the game are basically tutorials to help people get used to the three-mode transformation system of the Valkyrie so I kinda glossed over those.  
> These first few chapters are going to be a lot of world-building as the situation on Ouroboros needs to be understood before anything else can happen. Starting with the next chapter we'll see what strange things this Ouroboros Phenomenon will cause.
> 
> See you next Deculture!


	4. The Ouroboros Incident

**Summary for the Chapter:**

> Strange things begin to happen on Ouroboros. Aisha threatens Leon with Pineapple Salad.

**Notes for the Chapter:**

> A quick note before we begin. The Zentran language presented herein is basically a mix of some "Official" words that I've gleaned out of translations supplied by Sketchley of MacrossWorld.com and some I've tried to make sound like the words spoken in the movie DYRL?  
> Hopefully it sounds good.

** Chapter 3 **

** The Ouroboros Incident **

 

Aisha was still grumbling when they climbed back into their Valkyries.

“That Leilong… question my genius… oh I’ll remember this…”

“Uh Aisha, now that we got the license, do you want to head back to the _Gefion_?” asked Leon.

Aisha blinked back at him and then shook her head rapidly, as if trying to clear out all the negative thoughts.

“No, not just yet, I want to show you around the islands a little bit first. You ready to go on a Flight Date?” she said, winking at him. Leon was a little taken aback by her sudden flirtatiousness.

“Um, sure, that sounds good. Seems odd to call it a flight date…”

“Oh? What would you call it when a beautiful young woman invites you to go somewhere in a Valkyrie, hmm?” she said with a grin.

“You got me there. You have a strange way with words Miss, er, Aisha,” replied, returning her grin.

“Alright! Let’s go!” she cried happily.

* * *

Later, they were flying high above the islands… the ones that were down in the ocean that is. As Aisha had showed him the various landmarks, Leon had asked her about the Hunter Guild and why the SMS needed to get licenses since they were their own organization. Aisha had said that it was largely a matter of who had been there first. SMS was a recent arrival to Ouroboros and in order to generate good will, and therefore work, they had to make nice with the locals.

“You and Leilong don’t seem to get along much though.”

“Oh that? Oh that was nothing! Leilong and I argue about stuff all the time. Leilong’s one of my best friends; she helped me through a… well she’s been an enormous help since we got to this planet.”

“So besides taking on assignments from the Guild, what else does SMS do around here for fun?”

“Currently our main project is studying the ancient ruins all over the planet.”

“What kinds of ruins?”

“The best kind!” Aisha, smiling widely from his monitor, “Protoculture ruins!”

That hit deep for Leon. The Protoculture was the universal term for the ancient Stellar Republic that had existed thousands of years ago. It was their warriors, the Zentradi, whom humanity first encountered when they’d dared to venture out into the stars and through that conflict had learned that humans and zentradi were more connected to the history of the galaxy than they knew. Ever since that time and as humanity expanded out into the galaxy, they searched for signs of where the Protoculture had been.

“Given how extensive the ruins here are, I’d say that this planet was of great importance to the Protoculture once. But since the arrival of the Aura, it’s been harder to get work done, especially with the _Gefion_ running on a skeleton crew.”

“Well since I’m not going anywhere, I might as well help you out on that. I’m no archaeologist though,” replied Leon.

“Really?! You’ll help with my work in the ruins? You’re the best Leon!”

Just then an alert beeped at them from the comm. Leon brought it up and saw that it was Leilong, who was smiling brightly again.

“Hello there you two! I was wondering if you could do me a little favor?”

“Sure Leilong, what is it?” asked Aisha.

“Out at the World Tree, Point Y24, there seems to be a some kind of zentran rebellion!”

“A zentran rebellion? What about?” asked Aisha, clearly surprised.

“That’s what’s strange about it. There’s very little information, just that a zentran is going wild in the caves beneath the tree.”

Aisha seemed lost in thought so Leon replied, “Alright then, Leilong, we’ll check it out.”

“Be careful,” she replied before signing off.

“A zentran rebellion…” murmured Aisha.

“Aisha, something wrong?”

“It’s just that it’s weird. The zentradi on Ouroboros have always been well adjusted, for the most part. I’ve never heard of anything like this before.”

Leon could see that this was bothering her so decided to can some of his usual bravado.

“Well, I’m sure we’ll be able to help, whatever’s wrong,” he said.

“You’re right. Now follow me, it’s time to head to the World Tree!”

* * *

 

A little while later, they arrived at their destination. Leilong and Aisha hadn’t been kidding when they called it the World Tree. An absolutely massive trunk split out into a tangle of roots, like a demented crown, which plunged into the island below, completely covering it. The tree itself rose impossibly high, blossoming out into a glorious bloom of green.

“Wow! Now that is awesome!” exclaimed Leon as they flew towards it.

“Never seen a mile high tree before huh?” said Aisha, with a grin.

“No way!”

“It’s one of Ourboros’s wonders. They named it the World Tree after the old Norse legends of the tree that supported the nine worlds of the universe.”

“Yeah, looks like you could park a whole fleet in the branches up there!” said Leon, which made Aisha laugh at the idea.

They circled around the base of the tree once before Leon spotted the entrance. Aisha confirmed it.

“That’s definitely Ratatoskr Cave down there. Let’s go!”

They swooped in, transforming to battroid as they went as the tunnel was too small for GERWALK. As they descended, the light from the entrance dimmed, causing them to switch on night  vision. Suddenly, they saw movement in the shadows, a large figure crouching in the pooled water at a fork in the cave.

“Is there someone there?” Leon asked cautiously, moving his battroid slowly forward.

“I think it might be the zentradi we’re here to look for,” replied Aisha.

The lights from their battroids slowly traced up the water and illuminated the figure; it was indeed a zentran, or male zentradi, and his head whipped around towards them, eyes wild and unfocused.

“Yakk?” he said, “Yakk… de zentran… Gadoras! Gadoras!!”

“Whoah, Leilong was right, he definitely doesn’t seem too friendly!” Leon said. He wasn’t very familiar with Zentradi and consequently with their language. And contrary to the movies, not everyone went around with a Universal Translator in their ear.

“Wait! Before you do anything, let me try talking him down,” said Aisha. She began to speak back to him in the Zentran language.

“De deburan! Merukesu Meltran! Fol deskeslaas?”

“Meltran?! Miclone deburan! Gadoras!”

With that the angry zentran leapt up from where he’d been crouching and took a wild swing at Aisha’s pink and white battroid.

“I don’t think he’s listening!” cried Leon as he swung is gunpod around to crack the zentran on the back of the skull. He seemed to sense the movement because he ducked, spun around and came after Leon.

“Try not to hurt him! I don’t think he’s in his right mind!” said Aisha.

“Gotcha! Alright old man, let’s dance!” cried Leon enthusiastically. Unfortunately in his enthusiasm to fight, he forgot how slow this Phoenix battroid was compared with what he was used to. The zentran managed to get in behind him and put his battroid in a chokehold. Then Aisha leapt onto him and managed to drag the crazed zentran off of Leon. The zentran began to thrash wildly, screaming curses in zentradi. Leon, eager to make up for his misstep, brought his battroid around, cocked back the fist and clocked the zentran with a solid right cross, knocking his head back against Aisha’s battroid. If the zentran had been another kind of lifeform, the blow probably would have killed him. Zentradi in their natural giant form are made tough though; some can even survive for short periods in hard vacuum.

“Whew! Well that didn’t go as badly as it could have,” remarked Leon, the fist of his battroid shaking back and forth, as if to alleviate the pain of the blow.

“Are you alright Leon?” asked Aisha.

“I do wonder; that guy was seriously trying to rip my battroid apart.”

“He might be a stray zentradi that haven’t encountered culture before. That might explain the violence and the unwillingness to speak an Earth language.”

“You think so? He isn’t dressed like a soldier,” remarked Leon. Indeed, the zentran was dressed in a simple jumpsuit.

“Ohhh… my head…” he groaned, in English this time.

“Oy, old guy, we’re members of the Hunter Guild who were asked to come check out the disturbance you’ve been causing down here. What’s your deal?” demanded Leon.

“Very subtle, Leon,” said Aisha, frowning.

“Eh? Hunters? You mean… me? I don’t know what you’re talking about,” the zentran said, groaning as he leaned against the wall.

“Just try to relax and tell us what you were doing down here at all,” said Aisha.

“I can’t really recall,” muttered the zentran, “not what I’m doing here I mean. I do remember that I was in the ruins with an excavation team.”

“The ruins? I thought so!” said Aisha excitedly.

“Yes, we were working with that NUNS taskforce Hava-whatsit, and then… everything else is a blank. Someone in a Valkyrie might have been chasing me but it’s all too fuzzy…”

“Could the ruins really have done this? Very interesting,” said Aisha, who seemed to be speaking more to herself than Leon and the zentran.

“What do you mean the ruins might have something to do with this?” asked Leon, who was feeling very in the dark.

“We’ll find out, I plan on it!” replied Aisha, “In the meantime, let’s get this guy to the Guild and out of this dank hole.”

“Sure thing, though they better give us a good grade for this!” Leon said lightheartedly.

“Follow us to the Hunter Guild in Daoren,” said Aisha to the zentran, “They’ll be able to help you there.”

“Sure. Sorry about all this,” said the zentran.

“No problem,” replied Leon, although he secretly wondered how much Gerrol was going to yell at him back on the _Gefion_ for what had happened to the VF-0.

* * *

 

 Later, once they had flown the zentran, GERWALK-style, back to Daoren and landed back aboard the _Gefion_ , they reported in to Leilong.

“So we’re not sure what happened or what exactly caused that poor guy to go wild,” said Aisha.

“I understand. In any case, the mission is complete and we’ll transfer the reward to SMS’s bank. Good job, especially to you Leon!”

“Yes, it does feel good to get paid, I have to admit,” Leon replied cheekily, leaning back in his chair, his feet resting on the console. Aisha swatted at his shoes to let him know they were unwelcome there.

“Oh it’s good to get paid huh? Here you have a beautiful young lady to fly around and show the sights of Ouroboros and all the excitement that resulted and that’s all you can think about? Maybe I should pay you your cut in pineapple salad, hmm?”

“Oy oy, Aisha don’t joke about that stuff,” Leon, sitting up in his chair with a worried look on his face.

“I might just if you don’t get down to the hangar and help Gerrol and his crew; they’re short-handed as it is. Get!”

Leon, not wanting to invoke the curse of the pineapple salad, beat a hasty retreat off the bridge.

“If you treat boys like that, they’ll think you’re stuck up and won’t date you, Aisha. Well, see you later” said Leilong, signing off before Aisha could make a retort.

Aisha scowled; she’d get Leilong back of course but she had much weightier matters on her mind. The NUNS taskforce that the zentran had mentioned had to be the one that had taken up residence on Ouroboros shortly before Leon had arrived and the Aura began. What could their interest be in the ruins? She wasn’t sure but she had a bad feeling about this.

 

**Notes for the Chapter:**

> I was thinking to myself while writing this chapter and I thought that for those who may not have played Macross 30, they might not know what the Gefion is supposed to look like. Therefore, I've invited the Beautiful Genius of SMS to explain!
> 
> Aisha: Konnichiwa minna-san! While the Gefion might not be as awesome as some of SMS's Macross Quarter-class ships, it's nonetheless a tough little ship. It's a Northampton-class Space Stealth Frigate, a type that has been in use by UN Spacy and New UN Spacy for decades now. You've probably seen them on the front lines of the Macross 7 and Macross Frontier fleets. I'll also include the design data:
> 
> Length: 252.5 m   
> Height: 64.5 m   
> Width: 85.6 m   
> Operating Weight: 1,200 t   
> Armaments: 2x 72 mm beam gun turret, 4x twin 58 mm beam gun turret, 18x 20 mm twin beam CIWS, 4x Anti-ship missile launcher  
> Complement: ~37 variable fighters  
> (http://sketchleystats.webatu.com/Trans/MCRmechanic/Funs06aFrontierWarFleet.php)  
> (http://www.macross2.net/m3/macrossplus/stealthfrigate.htm)
> 
> One Northampton-class frigate, the Stargazer, was famously used in an operation to stop the Protodeviln. Unfortunately the ship didn't survive... but don't worry, the Gefion is built tough; it'll survive, no problem! Right Author-san?
> 
> Uh yeah, sure, it's totally NOT gonna get blown up.
> 
> Aisha: Nani?
> 
> Uh yes, well moving right along, I discovered an interesting bit of trivia. The Ratatoskr mentioned in the name of the cave that Leon and Aisha go into is a creature that was said to run up and down the World Tree in the old Norse legends. Man, they really did their research on this, didn't they? 
> 
> Aisha: What do you mean that the Gefion is totally not gonna blow up? What are you planning?!
> 
> In any case, the next chapter is going to be very exciting. The mysteries of Ouroboros deepen and Leon finds something he did not expect in the ancient Protoculture ruins. See ya next time! Oh and Aisha? I was just kidding! Sheesh, nothing's gonna happen to the Gefion.


	5. The Commander

** Interlude **

** The Commander **

****

Lt. Rod Baltomar of the New UN Spacy stood before his commanding officer, Ushio Todo. They were in the Commander’s office, a Spartan space furnished with very little. Most NUNS higher officers had offices replete with mementos, either of a military or a personal nature or both. But Todo just kept a few Zentradi artifacts and his desk with a holo-computer. Currently the Commander sat with his elbows resting on the desk, fingers interlaced, staring down Rod with his one visible eye. NUNS regulations were specific on on the officer dress code but Todo somehow maintained a number of linear tattoos on his face. The artificial wasn’t the result of standard modification that many of the uncultured Zentradi received but was the result of a battle he’d been in while young.

“The YF-25 wasn’t destroyed,” he began, “Rather, our intelligence indicates it went down in the Julia Islands. Why didn’t you destroy it as you were ordered?”

“With respect sir, I thought I had. I was not expecting the pilot to survive.”

Todo knowingly grinned at Rod, causing him to shift ever so slightly in his at-attention position.

“Don’t try to fool me Rod. I know you’re fighting style; you are ruthless and efficient and if you had truly meant to kill that pilot, you would have made sure of it. Why did you let him go?”

Rod hesitated; should he tell his commander why he had shown mercy to the SMS fighter? No, better to tell some truth but not all.

“I am ashamed to say that I was… amusing myself sir. I deliberately damaged the craft just enough that it would crash to the planet, unless the pilot happened to be skilled enough to survive, which apparently he was.”

“Only somewhat skilled. His survival is largely due to the SMS frigate _Gefion_ being nearby and rescuing him from the water. I have no doubt that they will be suspicious as to why we attacked their fighter.”

“Forgive me sir, I failed you,” said Rod, bowing his head low.

“I can understand your want of a challenge Rod. The bandits and bounty hunters that crawl across this planet are hardly worth dealing with. But remember why we came to this planet, the promise we have worked so hard for. We can’t afford to have the SMS sticking their noses where they don’t belong.”

“But sir, the local SMS branch only have a few operational fighters. They couldn’t hope to pose a threat to us.”

“And yet that pilot was able to take out three Ghost drones. Aisha Blanchette, their leader, is rumoured to be building some new weapon for SMS and they do have a strong relationship with the Hunter Guild. They could cause trouble enough. And now we have wild Zentradi appearing. Rod, I need to know, if we are forced to take steps, will you be able to do what needs to be done?”

Rod remembered a burning military base and a young woman dying in his arms. His eyes narrowed and he snapped his arm up in a rigid salute to his commander.

“Sir! Yes sir!”

“Excellent. Now, I believe we have some very interesting new recruits that I would like you to meet. If we can spin them a good enough tale, they would make great allies. You are dismissed Liuetenant.”

Rod snapped his hand back to his side and executed a perfect about face and left the office. Todo reclined ever so slightly in his chair and went back to studying the report on his holo-screen. It was a report dated from the Protodeviln War back in 2045 on the Protoculture’s EVIL-series bio-weapons…

 


	6. The Girl in the Ruins

**Summary for the Chapter:**

> Aisha and Leon head of to investigate the Protoculture ruins but get more than they bargained for.

**Notes for the Chapter:**

> I would recommend Tally Ho! from the Macross Frontier soundtrack for the fight with Ganeth. :)

** Chapter 4 **

** The Girl in the Ruins **

****

Leon’s quarters on the _Gefion_ were smaller than what he was used to on the planet of Sepheela, but he could deal with it. It was kind of bare, seeing as how the only personal items of his that had survived the crash were his locket and his holo-picture.

After showering and going through his morning routine, he made his way up to the bridge of the _Gefion_ where he found Aisha perusing a number of displays on the large tactical hologram station. Most of them seemed to have to do with what Leon guessed were the Protoculture ruins.

“Morning Aisha, what’s up?” he asked.

“Hmm? Oh, good morning Leon,” she said distractedly. Leon had learned even in the short time he’d been with her that Aisha got very involved with her work.

“Hmm, as I thought… these markings translations were right…” she mumbled.

“Are those the ruins I’ve heard so much?” supplied Leon.

“Yes, they are. I have a theory about what happened to our zentran friend in here, but we’re going to have to travel deep into the ruins and hope that what I think is there, is there.”

“Which is?”

Aisha turned in her seat to face Leon and grinned.

“Answers.”

She bounded up out of the chair and headed to the door, winking at Leon as she went.

“Better saddle up flyboy, we’re going on another flight date.”

Leon just smiled and shook his head slightly at Aisha’s phraseology and followed her to the hangar.

* * *

 In the hangar Gerrol was in a much more animated mood than before and he happily pulled Leon aside as soon as he came out of the locker room to show him his latest work.

“I know I’m good but that Aisha can simultaneously work on her ruins stuff and help us put together Valkyries. Plus it’s good of her to let us work on, ah, ‘pet projects’ like this,” he said, dragging Leon to a pair of VF-0 fighters that were now parked next to the blue and white VF-0D he’d been flying.

“We finished these last night thanks to parts purchased from the rewards we’ve gotten from working with the Hunter Guild. One’s a VF-0A,” he said, pointing to an all-gray Phoenix that differed from the –D in that it was a single-seater and had swing wings instead of delta wings, “And this VF-0S,” he said, pointing to a white VF-0 with black and yellow stripes.

“Unlike the D, which is a vintage Phoenix complete with over-tuned turbofan jet engines, these two are replicas and we’ve outfitted them with some old VF-1 FF-2001 reaction turbine engines. It’ll be a lot different than the VF-0D, so try not to sneeze and end up in the ocean, eh?”

“Sure thing!” Leon said enthusiastically, “But when are you going to be done with those VF-1s over there?” he said, pointing to some fighter hulls on the other side of the hangar that were covered in scaffolding and conduits.

“Soon enough. Maybe do some more odd jobs for the Guild and get some money, that could possibly speed things up,” Gerrol said, grinning slyly at Leon.

“Gotcha! Now, which one should I take?” said Leon, looking back and forth between the VF-0A and the VF-0S.

 

A few minutes later, Leon was strapped into the modified VF-0S and he and Aisha were about to take off. The holographic runway indicators flashed STANDBY. Leon carefully pushed the throttle lever forward, hearing the familiar roaring whine of thermonuclear reaction turbines coming to power.

“Siegfried-1. Launching!” he cried and the electromagnetic locks were released and his fighter was catapulted forward along the launch ramp. The acceleration slammed Leon back into his seat but he was long used to it by now.

_Man, I could do this every day!_

Soon, he and Aisha in her pink and white VF-19E were soaring along the islands towards their destination. Aisha was lazily drifting back and forth, humming a little tune.

“What kind of flying is that Aisha?” asked a bemused Leon.

“What do you mean? I can fly however I want!” she responded back.

“It certainly looks interesting,” replied Leon.

“What, it’s fun! Besides I’m too excited at what we’re going to find out! I gotta blow off some steam!” Aisha promptly sent her fighter into a crazy loop before zooming past Leon’s Phoenix.

“Just you wait ruins! We’re going to be the first to uncover your secrets!” she said.

“And I’ll just be back here, praying that we don’t get into trouble,” sighed Leon.

“Look, I need you to be honest with me. Is there anything dangerous down there that we should be worried about?”

“Well we already know that the ruins have strange effects. There actually reports about them going years back. But I’m sure we’ll be fine!”

“Yeah. Sure.” Replied Leon, dubiously.

 

* * *

 

At last they arrived at the ruins of a great arch surrounded by pillars and smaller arches. They all had intricate fascia and runes carved into them at regular intervals and the stone itself was dark grey and very rough, clearly showing the signs of the wearing of years. Unfortunately, any hope of Leon’s that this would be a milk run were cut short when, as they landed at the base of the large arch in battroid mode, they saw a green camouflaged VF-171 Nightmare Plus EX Valkyrie guarding a tunnel which seemed to lead underground. The image of the pilot, a large, swarthy man with tanned skin, an afro, quite a few scars, beady green eyes, a thin moustache and pointed goatee and a furry, white… thing around his neck appeared on their monitors.

“Sorry, but there’s no going into the ruins today!” he said in a rough voice.

Aisha looked aghast at her monitor.

“Guh… Ganeth Modler?! What are you doing here?”

“You know him?” asked Leon.

“He used to be a Guild hunter but after the idiot tried to steal from the ruins, they kicked him out,” quickly explained.

Ganeth scowled back at them.

“You’re in for it this time Aisha. I heard what you and your friend there did to my boys the other day and I’m afraid I’ll have to pay you back for that,” he said.

“You’re right Aisha… this man reminds me I’ve something I’ve tried to forget…” said Leon as his grip on the controls of his Phoenix turned white-knuckled. A flood of memories washed over him, of burning buildings, chasing after his sister, an explosion…

Aisha didn’t seem to be listening as she was now yelling at Ganeth.

“Idiot! You can’t keep us out of there and if you try I absolutely will not forgive you!” she snarled. It was the first time Leon had ever seen the pretty young meltran so upset but he was so lost in his own memories that he was only half paying attention to what was going on.

“Hmph, that’s good enough for me. I’m definitely not letting you into the ruins, so what are you going to do about it?” responded Ganeth, smirking.

Leon glared back at Ganeth through his monitor, his own devilish smirk on his lips.

“You sure talk pretty big, don’t you” he said sarcastically.

“Obviously!” responded Ganeth, missing the sarcasm completely,  “soon, all of Ouroboros will have to acknowledge me for my greatness!”

Leon was getting more and more pissed off by this guy. A few more words and he may just shoot him.

“Now why don’t you just back down, eh?” Ganeth sneered. “They may call me an idiot but they’ll soon see, I’m going to be the king around here and I’ll take what I want, when I want!”

“What are you talking about, Ganeth?” scoffed Aisha, “As if there’s anyone here would listen to you!”

That was all Leon could take.

“Is that all you have to say?” he said, so coldly that it actually surprised Aisha.

“Leon?” she said uncertainly.

“And what if it is?” sneered Ganeth.

You’re just like those men that killed Mia. I can’t stand that kind of attitude you have!” Leon said coldly

“Mia?” said Aisha softly. Was Mia the girl in the locket that she had found on Leon? And if so, what was she to him?

“Those cowards attacked us by surprise that night and a lot of good people died or were trapped in burning debris. Mia tried to rescue some of the poor fools and paid for it with her life. Because of that… I’m going to take you down!!” roared Leon. Now it was Aisha’s turn to be surprised at the strength of emotion that Leon had.

“What the-? What are-? Argh, never mind, come at me if you want, big shot!” snarled Ganeth.

Leon didn’t waste the invitation; he charged straight at him.  **(Start Tally Ho! here)**

“What’s wrong with you Leon?” cried Aisha, more concerned for his safety than being angry with him. But Leon wasn’t charging blindly. He might have been extremely pissed at the moment, but he was using his anger to focus himself solely on one goal: take down Ganeth! He fired as closed with Ganeth, not just his gunpod, but also his head-mounted laser cannons as well. Ganeth managed to side step and switched into GERWALK mode, taking the fight to the air. Leon also switched modes and flew after him, locking on his anti-air missiles as he did so. Ganeth then switched to fighter mode and dove into the cluster of pillars near the big arch. The missiles couldn’t track him as he weaved through and impacted on the columns, throwing smoke dust and debris everywhere. Ganeth himself came bursting out of the smoke, the large MDE particle beam cannon on his right arm sending lances of blue light towards Leon’s Phoenix.

On the ground near the arch, Aisha was cursing herself for reacting so slowly to the sudden shift in the confrontation. She imagined her conscience telling her, _get up there and help him you idiot! Even if he did charge in first!_

She transformed to GERWALK and soared up into the sky, locking on her internal micro-missiles and firing a salvo from the launchers mounted in the VF-19E’s legs/engine nacelles. Ganeth’s fighter’s threat detection system shrieked an alarm; missiles incoming and this time no easy cover. He transformed into fighter mode and soared away from Aisha and Leon, firing flares and chaff as he went. Leon was right on his tail though, transforming from fighter, all the way to battroid, using the thrust from his re-oriented engines to push him at an angle perpendicular to Ganeth’s line of flight. Grimly, he lined up his sights on Ganeth and pulled the trigger. A stream of gunpod shells and laser fire peppered Ganeth’s VF-171 causing it to belch out streams of black smoke.

“GYAH! Dammit, you actually hit me!” he snarled, “you won this time, but I’ll remember this, damn you!!” With that, his Nightmare Plus peeled off towards the horizon, trailing a ribbon of smoke after it.

Leon’s and Aisha’s battroids came to a rest on the grass in front of the big arch’s base. Aisha’s battroid reached over and laid its mechanical hand on the shoulder of Leon’s Phoenix.

“Looks like you saved us from Ganeth… but are you alright? Things got pretty heated back there with that fool.” Said Aisha, worry laced in her tone. Leon didn’t reply for several seconds, then he sighed heavily.

“…Sorry. I’m alright now.”

“Alright then. This time I’ll let what you did go. But please don’t do something like that again,” she said, gently but firmly.

“I won’t,” he replied, the adrenaline of the fight giving way to a more laconic feeling.

“OK, then let’s not waste another moment and get into those ruins! Follow me!” said Aisha, her good cheer returning abruptly. Her battroid dashed off towards the tunnel entrance but Leon paused a moment.

“Mia… I still can’t forget what happened to you that night…” he said softly. Shaking himself out of his reverie, he guided his battroid after Aisha.

* * *

 

At first Leon was surprised that their battroids were able to move around in the underground tunnels but then he remembered that the Protoculture had designed the Zentradi, so why shouldn’t the tunnels be large? The initial tunnel eventually stopped slanting downwards and opened up into a huge antechamber.

“You showed me some holos of the ruins but now that we’re here, I see the Protoculture really knew their stuff!” exclaimed Leon.

“Ouroboros’s ruins are unique in the galaxy for how much of the aesthetics of the Protoculture they’ve preserved. There’s no place else like them,” explained Aisha, “However they’ve only recently been discovered; they were all sealed up prior to now.”

“Amazing that something like this still exists in the galaxy,” said Leon as he gazed around.

“Part of the problem is that I think the seals on the ruins have only now deactivated due to the ‘fold dance’ caused by the Aura.”

“Fold Dance?”

“My little nickname for the way the fold waves are distorted by the Ouroboros Aura,” replied Aisha.

“OK, whatever you say,” replied a thoroughly bemused Leon.

“There might even be rare artifacts down here.”

“Artifacts huh?” replied Leon, already knowing he’d likely take on the role of pack mule.

“Yep! C’mon, it’ll be fun!” said Aisha as her battroid went bounding off. Leon followed after her, still marveling at the chambers and grand corridors. The tiled floors, intricate alien columns and vaulted ceilings with crystal domes all held a mysterious air. They were made in such a way as to be familiar geometrically but Leon couldn’t shake this feeling that it all meant that he was in a place not made by human schools of thought.

The chambers were connected by tunnels much wider and grander than the one they had come through, all heading further down into the planet’s crust. They had just barely arrived in the next chamber when they saw a pair of strange creatures standing in the center of the chamber. They looked like some nightmarish fusion of  a crab and a giant ant. They were mostly white with blue crystalline highlights and two huge glowing yellow circles on their fronts that looked for all the world like eyes.

“What the-? What are those things?” asked Leon in astonishment.

“careful, I don’t like the look of those flaming eyes of theirs,” cautioned Aisha as she brought her battroid to a halt.

“Why do you think they’re here?” asked Leon, keeping one eye on his weapon gauges.

“They’re likely here to protect this place.”

“Do you think they’ll attack us then? They don’t look all that dangerous.”

“Even if they’re not, I don’t think they’ll be a problem for us,” grinned Aisha.

“Alright! Let’s go!” cried Leon.

Any assumptions that the creatures might have let them pass were proved wrong as they tried to casually pass by them. The two creatures immediately oriented on Leon and Aisha and charged towards them, slashing with their clawed forelegs. However it didn’t take much more than a few bursts from Aisha and Leon’s gunpods before the creatures went down.

“They didn’t seem to have any weapons,” said Leon, “Other than those claws.”

Aisha was busy scanning the creatures, trying to see if they matched anything in her files.

“They’re definitely here to protect the ruins. The name we have in my files is ‘Dyaus,’” said Aisha. “They seem to resemble the Vajra somewhat, which shouldn’t be surprising since we know that the Protoculture revered the Vajra anciently. I would suspect that that they do have weapons and we just reacted with enough force to stop them before they used them. There’s likely more of them, or they might even be able to recover and reactivate-“ she said before Leon cut her off.

“I understand, we'll have to hit them hard and fast if we want to stay alive down here.”

Unfortunately for Leon, “fast” wasn’t in Aisha’s vocabulary for this trip. She wanted to stop and study _everything,_ from wall friezes, to pictographs to the guts of the dead Dyaus guardians. She got really excited when she found Fold Quartz in some of them, indicating a solid link between the Protoculture and the Vajra. She would Leon his opinion, even if he were no amateur archeologist like her. At the very least he was all for SMS getting to study them, rather than bandits or some megacorporation plundering them. Eventually the reached a room with some kind of circular machine embedded into the floor from which a cone of violet light burst forth. After scanning it and finding out it was configured somewhat like a fold drive, Leon decided the best way to test out what it really was, was to step into the light, so to speak. He found his Valkyrie had been transported into an entirely different room. The strange machine was some kind of teleporter! Aisha arrived a moment later and began yelling at but was cut short when an ominous rumble resounded through the chamber they were in.

“I’ve got a bad feeling about this,” murmured Leon, once again checking the status of his weapons.

With a loud rumble that shook dust from the ceiling, a section of wall slid open and a much, much bigger Dyaus scuttled out. The ones previous to this had been smaller than their battroids but this one had to be twice the size of their Valkyrie fighters!

“That’s... one heck of enemy,” said Leon flatly.

“No way! Look at the size of that thing!” cried Aisha, her eyes as wide as saucers.

Never mind its size! Let’s get it, Aisha!” said Leon grimly. Suiting action to words, he locked on with the last of his missiles and fired. The large Dyaus swatted two of them out of the air and the ones that did hit didn’t seem to phase it much. All of a sudden Leon wished he had a FAST pack on… and… why wasn’t Aisha helping him?

“Oi! Aisha! A little help!”

“Hehehe, this is the greatest ruins find ever!” she cried, eyes practically sparkling in happiness. “Nobody’s ever found something like this ever!”

Leon almost face-palmed.

“ _Director_ Aisha, don’t you think we should, maybe, stop it before it, uh, pounds us flat?”

Aisha seemed to snap out of her reverie.

“…of course. We’ll engage it but please try not to damage it too much.”

“Don’t worry about that. I’ll just blow it up a little bit.”

“I would really like it if you did,” said Aisha in the closest thing Leon had ever heard her come to pleading, “or I might have to hurt you later on!”

“She says this right when we’re in the middle of a pinch,” Leon grumbled. Then, noticing that the big Dyaus was charging them, he grabbed hold of Aisha’s battroid and tugged it out of the way.

“Siegfried-1, engaging the enemy!” he cried. And the fight was on!

* * *

 

It actually didn’t last as long as Leon thought it would. By now they were familiar with the weaknesses of the Dyaus and even the big one was not immune to strikes at its “eyes” and its less-armored abdomen. With a final burst from his gunpod, Leon sent the behemoth crashing to the floor.

“Alright! That wasn’t as hard as I thought it was going to be,” he said, despite the fact that he used up the last of his Phoenix’s missiles, all of his gunpod ammo and the charge on his laser cannons.

“Wait a moment!” said Aisha sharply. Her instruments were registering strange energy fluctuations in the Dyaus.

“The Guardian has a runaway reaction… but that means it’s going to… Look out, Leon! It’s going to explode!!” she screamed. Leon reacted instantly, his battroid leaping away from the fallen Dyaus, which detonated with the force of a small bomb.

 

Leon was awakened by a persistent, annoying beeping. Then a voice crackled in his ear.

“Leon? Leon? Are you there? Please, can you hear me?!”

“Ohhhh… Siegfried-1, still here,” he responded though every word seemed to increase the pounding in his head. He heard Aisha let out a long sigh that might have been part sob over the radio.

“I’m so glad you’re alright. Do you know where you are?”

“No I don’t,” he replied, scanning his surroundings even though moving his head felt like trying to move  lead brick. Despite the glow of his instruments, he could see nothing beyond his monitors, except a bright light in the distance.

“Can you see any way to get yourself out of there? I’m cut off from you,” said Aisha.

“Not right now. There’s something strange outside though. Give me a moment,” he said, the pain in his head causing him to speak in short staccato bursts. Stiffly, he managed to get the cockpit of the battroid open and crawled out. Pulling a flashlight out of his pilot suit, he shone the beam around where his Phoenix had landed. He seemed to be in a network of interconnecting tunnels, smaller than the ones he and Aisha had been exploring earlier. These could be the tunnels that the Dyaus used to get around, he figured. The hole in the sidewall where his Valkyrie had punched through didn’t seem in any immediate danger of collapsing so Leon decided to check out the light in the distance. As he walked towards it, he saw that there were patches of glittering luminescence scattered all over the almost organically shaped tubular tunnel. Suddenly it flared out into a roughly circular chamber and at the center… was a strange ovoid pod that looked like it was grown out of the floor and ceiling, like a stalagmite and stalactite that had merged together. The walls of the chamber were shaped with swirling ridges that seemed to pulse with muted color and strange runes glimmered on the floor. The pod was itself mounted on a stepped pedestal and chunks of strangely glowing crystal jutted up all around it. Stepping closer to this strange artifact, Leon’s flashlight revealed it was full of some liquid and… someone was in there! Leon gasped sharply as his flashlight traced the curves of the body, hair billowing up in the gently bubbling liquid from a very human-looking face…

With a jolt Leon realized that it was a girl in there!

“What is this place?” he said in a breathy whisper.

Without warning the circle of runes Leon was standing in began to glow as well as the pod itself. A faint but insistent hum began to emanate from the pod and Leon found that he couldn’t move; whatever he had activated had trapped him there. The pod began to bubble more rapidly and Leon could have sworn he saw the girl’s eyes open. There was a sudden flash of golden light and Leon threw up his free hand to shield his eyes. The whole chamber seemed to be vibrating now and as Leon lowered his hand he saw to his astonishment the girl, now outside the chamber and bathed in a golden glow. She was slowly falling towards him and without thinking he reached out and took her into his arms.

“Hello, can you hear me?” asked Leon. The girl merely groaned in response, not fully awake yet. Leon was about to ask more when there was loud, ominous rumble and dust and rocks began to fall from the ceiling. Leon had no choice but to hoist the girl up into the bridal carry, turned and ran from the chamber back to his battroid as quickly as possible.

* * *

 

The rest of the escape from the ruins and the flight back to the _Gefion_ passed in a blur to Leon. Before he knew it, he was back in the sickbay, sitting at the mysterious girl’s side as she lay on the medical bed. He barely even heard Aisha approach.

“So, mind explaining how all this happened, Lt. Leon?’ asked Aisha. She wasn’t mad at him per say, just confused how he’d randomly appeared with a strange girl.

“Well, after the large Dyaus exploded, I found myself in some part of the ruins and found this girl encased in some kind of strange pod. I must have done something to activate it because, well, here she is,” he said, “That’s all.”

“So you decided to climb out of your battroid in unstable conditions and nearly get yourself killed?” cried Aisha.

“The collapse didn’t start until after I got her out, it was fine!” he retorted.

“I was just worried about you! After getting separated and the ruins starting to collapse, I thought you might not make it out!” she said, tears beginning to form in the corners of her eyes.

“I’m sorry, I didn’t mean to-“ he tried to say but Aisha wasn’t finished yet.

“Didn’t I tell you not to blow up the Guardian? It was such a great find too! And I had to collect all the parts by myself!”

“I understand, I’ll try not to get blown up next time,” he said a little flatly.

Aisha wiped at the corner of her eyes and then said, softly, “I really was worried about you, you idiot.”

“What was that, Aisha?” Leon asked playfully.

“Nothing!” she snapped back, “Anyway, you said you found this girl in the part of the ruins you fell into?”

“Yeah, it was this really strange capsule, like I said-“ he was about to continue when the girl groaned and her eyelids began to flutter open.

“Oh, looks like our princess is about to awake,” quipped Leon.

Suddenly, Aisha was back in investigator mode.

“Hey, can you understand us? Are you a member of the Protoculture?” she asked rapidly.

“Oi, Aisha, don’t scare the poor girl to death right after waking up,” said Leon reproachfully.

The girl blinked up at the two of them a few times and then said something in an unfamiliar language. After a moment, English words were displayed on the monitor above her bed. Obviously whatever she was speaking had enough similar phonemes to earth, Zentradi and what little they knew of the Protoculture language to translate.

“What…? Where am I…? Who… are you?”

“My name is Aisha Blanchette, I’m sorry if I startled you,” replied Aisha, thoroughly contrite.

“And I’m Leon Sakaki. Do you have a name?’ said Leon cheerfully, smiling at the girl.

“Mina… Mina Forte. That’s my name,” she said haltingly.

“Mina. That’s a nice name,” replied Leon, warmly.

“…Thank you,” Mina said shyly, “um… excuse me but… where am I? What is this place?”

“You’re onboard a ship. We found you in some ancient ruins and brought you here,” supplied Leon.

“I see. I’m sorry but I can’t seem to remember any of that…”

“Don’t worry about that right now,” said Aisha kindly, “for now, do you feel OK?”

“Yes, I do. By the way, can you tell me why you’re speaking a different language than I am? And… do you know what happened to me? I can remember a few things but everything else is so fuzzy.

“Oh boy… Aisha, help me out here?” asked Leon.

“Sure thing,” replied Aisha, knowing that they were probably going to have to take quite a while to explain to this girl just what had happened and where she now was.

**Notes for the Chapter:**

> Whew! That was the longest chapter yet! But don't worry, the world-building and set-up is almost done. Now that Our Heroes Aisha and Leon have met the mysterious Mina Forte, things are going to be heating up! In the next chapter, Leon and Aisha are helping Mina get adjusted to her new surroundings when they're interrupted by a bandit attack and a VERY familiar face comes to their aid. Who, you ask? Well, you'll find out. ;)


	7. Britai City

**Summary for the Chapter:**

> Aisha and Leon take Mina to Britai City, formerly the Macross-class ship SDFB-8 Britai Kridanik. However, the city comes under attack and a very familiar face comes to lend a hand...

**Notes for the Chapter:**

> We'll be using a couple of different music tracks in this one. Sheryl Nome's "Sagittarius, 9 PM, Don't Be Late" and "Fate's Arrow" from the DYRL soundtrack, so use 'em if ya got 'em. :)

 

** Chapter 5 **

** Britai City **

****

For the past two hours, Leon and Aisha had explained to Mina the events surrounding her release from the strange capsule. To their surprise, the more that they spoke around Mina, the more that she understood them. This, combined with the strange nodules on her temples lead Aisha to believe that Mina might not be human, Zentradi or any other race previously encountered.

“And that’s just about all we can tell you, “ said Aisha, leaning back in her chair and stretching her arms over her head. “I feel like my throat will dry up if I have to talk anymore,” she added playfully.

“I’m sorry, I didn’t mean for you to talk so long,” Mina said shyly.

“Nothing a cool glass of water can’t solve,” replied Aisha, walking over to the sink and filling a small plastic cup.

“So Aisha, do you think we can let her out of the sickbay now?” asked Leon.

“Well, her vitals are stable, all scans are negative and she even is able to speak fluently now, so I don’t see any reason not too. We’ll have to get you some proper clothes though, Mina-chan. You don’t want to go walking around like that or certain males might start getting ideas,” Aisha said coyly.

“Hey!” shot back Leon. Mina, who was climbing out of the bed, looked down at the metallic gray bodysuit she was clad in. Realization dawned on her, causing her cheeks to flush pink. She gasped and frantically tried to wrap the bed sheet around her.

“Don’t worry Mina, Aisha’s just playing. I would guess you have some clothes to lend her?” asked Leon.

“Of course! Who do you think I am?” replied Aisha haughtily.

“I don’t want to be a burden,” said Mina in a meek tone. “You’ve done so much to help me and I would like to be able to pay you back eventually.”

“Hmm, well there is one way you could do that,” Aisha said, clasping her chin with thumb and forefinger. “I suppose I could give you a job?”

“Really? You’d do that for me?” said Mina, looking at Aisha in wide-eyed surprised.

“Of course I would! Besides, until the Ouroboros Aura dissipates, we need all the help we can get.  
“Thank you very much Aisha-san!” replied Mina enthusiastically.

“Now, that means we’ll have to head out again,” said Aisha, a mischievous glint in her eye.

“Go out? Go out to where?” asked Leon, feeling he knew the answer that was coming.

“Shopping of course! I’m happy to lend my clothes but Mina will need something of her own and I know just the place that happens to have the latest fashions from just before the Aura hit!”

“And I suppose you want me to go with you? Because there are a lot of things that need to be done here on the ship, like Valkyrie maintenance and…”

“I would feel much more comfortable with the both of you accompanying me, Leon-san,” said Mina, a pink tinge still coloring her cheeks. Leon sighed and smiled back at Mina.

“Well, not much I can argue with against that. OK, I’ll come with. Guess that means I’ll have to use the VF-0D again.”

“Alright, it’s settled then! Let’s shop until we can’t carry any more!” cried Aisha happily.

“You mean until I can’t carry any more,” grumbled Leon under his breath.

* * *

 

Soon enough, their Valkyries were back on the deck and launching into the bright blue sky. Mina, who had seemed so quiet and demure up until now, was brimming with excitement and had let out a loud whoop from the back seat of Leon’s VF-0D as it had taken off.

“So this is a Valkyrie. Amazing…” she said, watching the islands pass below them and sometimes beside them.

“She almost sounds like she wants to be a pilot,” said Aisha from her VF-19E.

“Why not? Being a pilot of a Valkyrie is the best feeling in the world,” replied Leon, “Maybe you should let her take a crack at it once we get back. You do have simulators aboard the ship, right?”

“Of course, what kind of an idiot wouldn’t have simulators?” said Aisha, a little irritably.

 

Soon, Britai City, which lay at the rough center of the archipelago, was in sight. But it wasn’t quite what Leon had been expecting. What looked like a giant, city-sized robot poked up from the water with huge, flat arms and twin spires over its head.

“Amazing… is all of that really a city?” asked Mina, in awe of the sight.

“Originally it was ship that sailed the stars. This was the SDFN-8 _Britai Kridanik_ , one of the twelve Macross-class ships built to pave the way ahead of the Megaroad-class colony ships and named after the Zentradi General who sided with the SDF-1 _Macross_ during Space War 1,” explained Aisha.

“Awesome!” replied Leon, equally in awe of the massive ship, “I’ve only ever seen pictures of one!”

“The _Britai Kridanik_ was originally part of a small scouting fleet that stumbled onto Ouroboros twenty years ago. They landed to investigate all the strange fold phenomena that appeared around and on the planet and ended up staying so long that they just decided to found a new colony. The SDFN-8 became the new capital and is now commonly known as Britai City,” explained Aisha, as they banked their Valkyries towards the city-ship.

* * *

 

 Once they had landed and stored their planes in the massive ship’s ARMD carrier sections, they travelled into the interior of the city-ship. To Leon, it was like the history videos he had seen of Space War 1 had come to life. Or maybe like that old movie, Do You Remember Love? For Mina, it was an exciting wonderland, filled with things she had never seen before or at least, couldn’t remember.

“Incredible…” she murmured as they stood beneath two massive windows that showed an incredible underwater vista. The city sections of the ship proper were located in the Macross-class ship’s legs, which were underwater.

“Hey, there’s the store I was telling you about! Let’s go in and see what deculture they have!” cried Aisha, pulling Mina along with her.

 

Sometime later, Leon sat inside the shop, surrounded by bags of clothes and assorted purchases.

“I guess I was right. I’m seriously regretting being included in this little shopping trip,” he moaned. He closed his eyes and let his mind wander and almost immediately, thoughts of Mia floated to the surface.

“Mia loved to go on trips like these and dragging me along with her and making me carry all her stuff…” he thought. Just then, the sound of footsteps approaching brought him out of his reverie.

“Leon-san! Leon-san! What do you think of this outfit?” asked Mina excitedly.

Leon turned to look at her and his breath caught in his throat for a moment. Mina had changed out of the SMS regulation flightsuit she had been wearing and was now wearing a teal shawl, almost the same color of her hair over a shoulder-less white shirt, with a yellow scarf wrapped around her shoulders. A pleated teal skirt, brown stockings and white, stylish boots completed the ensemble. Leon blinked a few times and then realized he ought to say something before he made a fool of himself.

“You look very pretty Mina,” he said, causing her to blush slightly.

“Thank you. Aisha wanted me to wear something a little different, but I thought it was too, erm, revealing…”

“Don’t worry about that. Aisha has her style and you have yours. And it works! By the way, where is Aisha?” he asked, looking around the shop and to the door outside.

“Oh, I think she’s gone to another store. ‘It’s important that I don’t miss this sale!’ I think she said,” replied Mina.

“I can’t figure her out sometimes. One moment she’s all in-charge and a total gear head and the next she’s a typical teenage girl,” said Leon with a laugh. “Well, we better go catch up with her.”

They collected the various bags of things that were lying around Leon and headed out into the streets. As they were standing at a corner, waiting to cross the street, a holographic billboard lit up on a building, showing Sheryl Nome singing “Sagittarius, 9 PM, Don’t Be Late.” **(This would be where you would want to start the song, particularly at the chorus.)**

“Who is that?” asked Mina, entranced by the image.

“I’m guessing you don’t remember ever hearing a Sheryl Nome song before?” asked Leon.

“Sheryl Nome… it sounds like a wonderful melody. She must be really famous if she can sing like that,” said Mina.

“Yeah, Sheryl’s sometimes called the Galactic Fairy because of how famous she is. My little sister loved her music and bought all of her albums,” replied Leon, a touch of wistfulness in his voice.

Just then, Aisha walked up to them, shopping bags in hand.

“Oh Leon, Mina there you are! What are doing? Watching a Sheryl Nome music video? Somehow, I’m not surprised you’d like her, Leon,” she said with a mischievous wink.

“Hey, don’t lump me in with weirdoes. I like her just fine. And it’s a good one… this song I mean,” he replied.

Noticing how enraptured Mina was with Sheryl’s singing, Leon felt a wave of nostalgia wash over him.

“Hey Mina, would you like to get one of Sheryl’s CDs?” he suddenly asked.

“Huh? I guess I would like to, but I don’t have any money! And wouldn’t it be somewhat expensive…?” she trailed off, not quite sure how to respond.

“Don’t worry about it. Consider it something of a present from me,” said Leon, smiling warmly at her.

* * *

 

 A few minutes later, they were in a music store and the freshly purchased disc was in Mina’s hands. Strangely enough, physical media was still present, even at this point in time. It was especially prevalent amongst the Zentradi.

“The price wasn’t too unexpected but don’t worry about paying me back,” said Leon, “Like I said, it’s a gift.”

Mina looked up at him and felt a sudden warmth of… something towards Leon.

“Thank you so much, Leon! Nobody’s ever bought something like this for me before… at least that I can remember,” she said.

“You’re turning into such a lady-killer, Leon. I think your stock with Mina just went way up!” said Aisha, smirking devilishly at Leon.

“Oh, shut up,” Leon shot back, somewhat embarrassed.

They were just walking out of the store when they heard a strange roaring noise. Leon’s eyes widened as he recognized it.

“Aisha! Mina! Get Down!” he shouted, grabbing the two girls around the shoulders and pulling them to the ground. Not a moment too soon as an explosion rocked the entire street and a Valkyrie swooped overhead in GERWALK mode.

“What the-? Where did that Valkyrie come from?” spluttered Aisha. The roaring of engines continued as more Valkyries swooped low over the buildings, the low flight ceiling causing the sound of their turbines to be ear-numbingly loud.

“Are they bandits?” cried Leon, “Doesn’t this city have any defense Destroids? Oh well, I guess it can’t be helped.”

Leon began to run, but was stopped as Aisha grabbed hold of his arm.

“Leon, the airport is _this_ way!” she said, pointing in the opposite direction of where he’d been running.

“Leon… are you going out to fight?” asked Mina, wide-eyed. It was the first time, that she could remember, something like this happening to her and she felt a deep, primal fear that Leon was going to wade into the thick of this.

“If the city has no defenses, then this is something we have to do,” he replied, grimly, “Let’s go, Aisha!”

“Right behind you! C’mon, Mina, we’ll find you someplace in the hangar to take shelter!”

* * *

 

**(Here’s where you should start “Fate’s Arrow”)** Aisha’s VF-19E and Leon’s VF-0D roared into action, bursting through the entry hatch into the city sections of the ship.

“Look, they’re just destroying things!” cried Aisha, “They don’t seem to actually be taking anything.”

“We still have stop them,” replied Leon grimly. He transformed into GERWALK and swooped down on a pair of Valkyries that were smashing up a movie theater.

“What are these? SV-51s? What are those?” he asked as he blasted the legs out from under one.

“It was a design used by the Anti-UN Alliance during the aftermath of the Unification Wars,” explained Aisha, “They didn’t see much use and pretty much were completely destroyed when the Zentradi Rain of Death happened. These are likely replicas; the design is pretty popular with the low-budget bandits since it’s ‘Anti-NUNS.’ They can be very tough in the hands of good pilot so watch yourself.”

Leon and Aisha didn’t need to worry too much as the pilots really were just attacking and smashing anything in their way. They fought with a strange kind of frenzied madness. Leon blasted the arms off of one but it charged him in battroid and he used his head lasers to slice through its legs. An alarm sounded in his cockpit and he looked towards the source to see a pair of civilians, a man and a woman, being chased by an SV-51 battroid colored in purple. It was about to overtake the couple; Leon wheeled his battroid around, lining up his gun sights with the enemy machine, but he was too slow. Suddenly a blast of gunfire took the SV-51 full in the chest and toppled it backwards, fire and shrapnel pouring from the wound. Something white swooped overhead and Leon heard a loud “YAHOO!!” over his radio. The new plane performed a tight loop, almost brushing the ceiling and arrowed down towards the streets below. At the last second it transformed into a battroid, mostly white but with black and yellow stripes.

“Hey you two!” the pilot called to them in a rough voice, “If you’re fighting these guys, there’s more down this way,” he said, his battroid pointing down the street. His image on their monitors showed a man dressed in an old UN Spacy jumpsuit, colored grey and black with blue trim. His helmet was grey with black ridges and his visor was lowered, obscuring his face.

He then took off, the battroid pounding down the road. Leon and Aisha, bewildered but grateful, followed after him. As they ran after him, Leon recognized that the Valkyrie the new pilot was flying a VF-1S Valkyrie, one of the original variable fighters from which the Valkyrie nickname had sprung. Whoever he was, he was good, transforming into GERWALK as they came into a square to dodge a pair of missiles fired by a green and yellow SV-51 and then shredding it with his gunpod. Another enemy Valkyrie fired some missile at him and Leon and Aisha watched in amazement as he used his quartet of head lasers to frag the missile and his gunpod to blast the SV-51 who fired them.

“He fights like Roy Focker,” murmured Leon.

* * *

 

The invading SV-51s were all down and Leon, Aisha and the mystery pilot had climbed out of their GERWALKs to investigate a pilot who had crawled out of the wreckage of his fighter. Leon grabbed him roughly by the lapels and hauled him up so he could look the man in the face. He noticed the enemy pilot had pointed ears, marking him as a zentran.

“So, what do you have to say for yourself, huh? Why were you guys wrecking the city?”

“Ow! That hurts! What’s happening! How… how did I get here?” the zentran asked wildly looking back and forth.

“Don’t let him fool you Leon. Let’s get the police and let them sort this out,” said Aisha, looking contemptuously at their captive

“The Police?! What do you mean, I didn’t do anything!”

“You wrecked the city with your SV-51 back there,” snarled Leon, pointing at the wreckage of his plane.

“What are talking about?!” the zentran cried, almost hysterical, “The last thing I remember is climbing into my cockpit and then I felt kind of funny…” he trailed off, his eyes becoming unfocused.

“Huh? Memory loss?” said Leon, confused.

“I wonder if this is the same thing that afflicted that one zentran that we found in the cave,” said Aisha, “The situation is almost the same.”

“I wouldn’t believe him, if I were you. Guys like him will say just about anything to get out of trouble,” said the mystery pilot, the visor on his helmet obscuring his face.

“Trust us, this may not be what you think,” said Leon, letting the zentran crumple to the ground.

“Thanks for the help back there, you pilot that VF-1S really well. What’s your name?” asked Leon.

“Oh! Sorry, forgot about the helmet,” said the man, reaching up and pulling his helmet off. Leon and Aisha sucked in a gasp of air as the man’s blond hair fell wildly around the crown of his head and his rough face split into a grin. He held out a hand and said, “Major Roy Focker, UN Spacy Skull Squadron Leader, at your service. Especially yours, “ he said, winking at Aisha.

 

**Notes for the Chapter:**

> He's baaaaaaaaaaaack. Yup, good 'ole Roy Focker is back to kick butt and take names. I know that in the game, other characters didn't start appearing until the second part but since Roy wasn't in the game, I figured this was the best spot to introduce him. As for the SDFN-8, that is complete canon, as far as Macross canon goes. If you've seen Macross Frontier, you'll probably remember the SDFN-4 Global on Gallia 4. You can look up the info on these ships here: http://www.macross2.net/m3/macrossf/macross-global.htm
> 
> Using what little info there is and my own head-canon, I would think it goes like this--
> 
> SDFN-1 Misa Hayase  
> SDFN-2 Hikaru Ichijo  
> SDFN-3 Lynn Minmay  
> SDFN-4 Bruno J. Global  
> SDFN-5 Roy Focker  
> SDFN-6 Maximilian Jenius  
> SDFN-7 Milia Fallyna Jenius  
> SDFN-8 Britai Kridanik  
> SDFN-9 Exedol Folmo  
> SDFN-10 Claudia LaSalle  
> SDFN-11 Hayao Kakizaki  
> SDFN-12 Komilia Maria Fallyna Jenius


	8. Skull Leader and The Monument

**Summary for the Chapter:**

> Mina begins to remember some details of her past but more questions are raised than answers.

** Chapter 6 **

** Skull Leader and The Monument **

****

****

“Well, there’s no doubt about it now, he really is Roy Focker,” said Aisha, turning in her seat to face Leon. They were in the ship’s lab, which was next door to the sick bay.

“But how is that possible? Roy Focker died… well, 50 years ago. Could he be a clone?” asked Leon.

“There are none of the markers for genetic manipulation. He really does seem to be who he says he is. I wonder…”

“What are you thinking?”

“Ever since I came here to Ouroboros I’ve heard stories from people saying that during Auras of years past that they met people who’ve seemed to be lost in time. I wonder if this is somehow related to the Aura? We should ask Major Focker about it,” she said, getting up from the computer station and walking to the door.

Leon followed her out and into sickbay where they found Roy in the midst of telling some story to Mina.

“And then she said to me, ‘Roy Focker, you pig!’ and then slapped me hard enough that I swear I could see little Valkyries floating around my head! I had to do a lot of apologizing to Claudia after that one.”

Mina was holding her hands over her mouth to stop from bursting into laughter.

“Mr. Focker that was horrible!” she giggled.

“What’s this hmm? You’re not corrupting our poor Mina are you Major?” asked Aisha with a wry grin.

“Naw, just telling stories to pass the time. So what’s the verdict miss Aisha? I don’t have any alien diseases?”

“That wasn’t exactly what we were looking for. Major, do you know where you are right now?”

“Well, I know it definitely ain’t Earth. That ship looking like and not actually being the _Macross_ was proof enough of that. I had just gotten there searching for answers as to where this place is and how I got here.

“Well, you’re right, this is not Earth. This is actually an Earth-like planet called Ouroboros. The city-ship was the SDFN-8 _Britai Kridanik_ ,” said Aisha.

“So they made more than one _Macross_ , eh? Well that answers another question I had. Better just give it to me straight. I did more than just travel through space didn’t I?”

Aisha and Leon traded looks.

“Yes, you did Major. It’s currently the year 2060.”

As much as Roy had braced himself for something shocking, he hadn’t been expecting fifty whole years. His faced paled considerably.

“Fifty years?! But… how?”

“Well Major, that’s what we were hoping you could tell us,” said Aisha

Over the next few minutes, Roy explained to them how he’d been on a patrol in his Valkyrie when suddenly his instruments had started fluctuating wildly. The next thing he knew, he’d blacked out and then found himself and his Valkyrie inside what looked like some ancient ruins. He’d found his way out and had just been wandering around trying to find out where he was and how he’d gotten there when he’d stumbled upon the SDFN-8 and the bandit attack.

“Hmm, that’s very interesting. Very interesting indeed,” remarked Aisha, he hand cupping her chin thoughtfully.

“So now I’m in the future eh? Well, I hope you can figure out a way to send me back, don’t much like the thought of outliving all of my friends. Personally I always thought that I’d go down in a blaze of glory…”

“It may be kind of difficult to do that,” said Leon, “see there’s this phenomenon going on right now called the Ouroboros Aura that’s messing up lots of stuff and…” he was cut off as Aisha cried, “That’s it!”

“What’s it?” asked Roy, Leon and Mina all together.

“I’ve had my suspicions but now I’m beginning to really think that there’s a connection between the ruins, the Aura and Major Focker being here! Major, can you remember where the ruins are that you woke up in?” she asked excitedly.

“Sure, they’re not too far from here, I think.”

Great! Well, what are you all standing around for? Let’s go!” she said and immediately spun around and headed at the door.

“Is she always like this?” Roy asked Leon, with a grin.

“Very,” he replied.

 

After pinpointing the coordinates, Aisha, Roy, Leon and Mina got suited up. Roy was pretty impressed with the facilities of the _Gefion_ , noting that it was a pretty big improvement over the Oberth-class space destroyers from his day. When they entered the hangar, Roy was even more impressed by Aisha’s VF-19E Excalibur but also by the three VF-0 Phoenix fighters they had.

“You even painted the VF-0S in my colors!” he guffawed when he caught sight of it.

“Oh yes. Gerroll, my head mechanic, is a BIG fan of that Bird Human movie, so he painted the S to look like your old one.”

“Bird Human? You mean the AFOS? Wait, they made a MOVIE of that?” asked Roy, slightly dumbfounded.

“Yeah! The documents were finally declassified back in ’58 and they started making the movie in ’59. It was Suuuuper romantic too! I felt so bad for Mao! She made a much better couple with Shin than Sara did, although that may have just been the actors during that one scene…”

“Ah, Aisha, maybe we shouldn’t be telling him this? You know, seeing as how he’s from the past?” said Leon, uncertainly.

“Aw don’t worry about that,” replied Roy, slapping Leon heartily on the back, “even a loudmouthed fighter jock like me knows when to keep his trap shut. But you know… we never did find out what happened to that Kudo kid…” Roy trailed off his he gazed at the white and yellow and black striped Phoenix.

“You know, I think I’m going to take this one up. It’d be nice to fly a Phoenix again.”

“Does that mean I could fly your Valkyrie, if you don’t mind?” asked Leon, half hoping to fly something that wasn’t as “slow” as the Phoenix and half because when else were you going to fly the Valkyrie piloted by THE Roy Focker? Roy favored him with a bemused, sidelong glance.

“Not on your life kid.”

 

Just as they were about to board their planes, Roy in the VF-0S, much to Gerroll’s ecstatic joy, Aisha in her pink VF-19E and Leon and Mina in the VF-0D, Mina said to Aisha and Leon, “Um, there was something I wanted to ask you.”

“Go ahead, Mina,” said Leon, smiling at her.

“I… I want to learn how to fly a Valkyrie!” she blurted.

Of all the things they expected her to ask, that had not been one of them.

“I think this would be the best way for me to help Leon and all the members of SMS!”

“Whoa, Mina, hold on there. Flying a Valkyrie is a very challenging thing to do. You can’t just climb in and expect to be able to pilot just like that,” said Leon.

“That’s right! Mina, if you’re really serious about this, we can have you go through the simulator when we get back,” added Aisha.

“I see… if the two of you think that’s best,” replied Mina.

“Aw, she’s really disappointed she can’t do it right now. We’ll have to fix that, won’t we ‘papa?’” said Aisha, nudging Leon in the ribs.

“Who’re you calling ‘papa?’” he shot back.

“He he he, don’t worry Mina, I’m sure we’ll have you trained to fly in no time.”

“Really?” she asked, excitedly.

“Sure! Now, let’s get going to those ruins!”

 

They found their way into the ruins easily enough as there were no bandits guarding the entrance this time around. These ruins looked to be in much better condition than the ones where they found Mina, with most of the architecture intact and unstained by the passing of time.

“Wow! These ruins are a lot more impressive than the last ones!” exclaimed Leon.

“Yeah. You could pack a few platoons of Zentradi in here and still have room to maneuver,” remarked Roy.

“I’ll bet. Hey Mina, are you feeling ok?” said Leon.

“Yes, but… I feel something familiar… like I’ve been here before,” she said, eyes closed as she tried to sort out just what it was that was making her feel this way.

“I’m sure we’ll find out as we get deeper in,” he offered.

 

As they traveled into the deepest parts of this particular ruin they did encounter some Dyaus Guardians but nothing that three well-armed Valkyries couldn’t handle. At one point, they discovered that one of the walls had some crude glyphs carved into them that definitely didn’t look like they had been there originally.

“Where do you suppose those came from?” asked Roy.

“There was a native culture on this planet besides the Protoculture,” replied Aisha, “I’m sure that Mina is one of them. Perhaps the Protoculture used them to help build these ruins?”

“Maybe. This jogging your memory at all, Mina?” asked Leon. She silently shook her head. As Leon flew onwards, Mina contemplated what Aisha had said. Did this then mean that she was the last of her kind? It wasn’t a pleasant thought.

 

At last they entered a chamber, which Aisha determined was at the lowest level. Right in the center of the massive cathedral-like space was a large… thing. Leon didn’t know what else to call it. It sat in a depression in the stone floor and sat upon a circular base. Its shape was circular at the base but fanning out into a half-moon crescent at the top. Triangular and circular markings adorned its face, dark and glass-like. To Leon, it looked as if it were molded from the stone, instead of carved.

“What is it?” asked Roy, bluntly.

“Let’s get a closer look!” suggested Aisha.

They put their Valkyries in GERWALK mode and tipped the forward fuselages down enough that they could then climb out of the cockpits. Leon and Roy both offered hand to help Mina down, something she blushed at profusely. Aisha meanwhile had already gone over to where the monument’s base sat.

“This is fascinating! I’ve never seen something like this down here before!” she exclaimed.

“Do you think it was made by the Protoculture?” asked Leon.

“It’s possible but I’d need to examine it more closely. It could have also been made by the native inhabitants.”

“Yeah, maybe. Mina, does this seem at all familiar to you?” Leon asked, turning to where Mina was standing beside him. She had been gazing up at the monument but now had her head bowed and eyes closed in an almost prayer-like attitude.

“Oi, Mina? Did something happen?”

Still she didn’t respond.

“What happened, Mina?” asked Aisha, a note of fear creeping into her tone. There was another pause where Mina didn’t move or say anything and then she murmured, “The ruins… start-up… song?”

Suddenly, there was a flash of light from above them, drawing Leon, Aisha and Roy’s attention. A triangular indention at the very top of the monument now glowed with a soft green light. Their attention was brought back to earth when they heard a thud next to them and looked down to see Mina collapsed on the floor.

“Mina! Dammit! What the hell just happened?” cried Leon.

“I don’t know! Here, let’s get her away from this… whatever it is,” said Aisha. All three of them grabbed hold of Mina and set her down where they had parked their Valkyries, against the foot of Leon’s VF-0D. Mina stirred and at last opened her eyes.

“Leon… Aisha? Mr. Focker?”

“Don’t call me ‘Mr. Focker.’ You’re making me feel old,” said Roy, half-joking, half-apprehensive.

“Do you feel alright? Does your head hurt?” asked Aisha, worry etched across her face.

“No, I’m alright…” said Mina, now struggling to get to her feet. Roy and Leon helped her up.

“Mina… what just happened back there?” asked Leon.

“I… I remembered…” she said breathily, her eyes looking beyond the three to something else only she could see.

“You remembered? Mina, are you saying you got your memory back?” asked Leon, astonished.

“I… I…” Mina tried to see but her voice broke and tears began to gather at the corners of her eyes.

“It’s okay, just take your time. We’ll head back to the ship and we can talk there,” said Leon.

“Right. Does that sound good, Mina?” offered Aisha, kindly.

“Yes,” replied Mina, quietly.

 

Once they had gotten back to the _Gefion_ and changed out of their pilot suits, the four of them gathered in the ship’s lounge. Unlike the lounge on a NUNS ship, this one was much more lushly appointed with a fully stocked bar but still retained a military feel to it. Roy tried to pour Mina a tall glass of Vodka but when Aisha threw him a dirty look he said he was kidding and put on a pot of coffee.

“Mina, back there you said you had remembered something?” Leon prompted.

“Yes…” she said uncertainly, “I only saw a few things but I think I remembered what I’m supposed to do.”

“What you’re supposed to do?” echoed Aisha.

“And what’s happening on this planet of Ouroboros,” said Mina.

“The Ouroboros Aura, the rogue Zentradi, the strange appearances… I can see how they’re all linked.”

“I thought so,” said Aisha, “I’ve heard from many of the guild members that the symptoms appeared and began to spread at that time.”

“When we went to the ruins, I felt that machine awakened a memory engram that I’ve carried with me. The memory doesn’t tell me much, just that I’m somehow linked to the computer system within the ruins. But I don’t understand why! Why am I linked with the ruins? Why… why can’t I remember anything else? What if… what if I CAN’T remember anything else? And where are the others who are like me? What if I’m… the only one left?”

“I suppose it’s possible…” said Leon, thoughtfully. When Mina and Aisha looked over at him in shock, he continued, “But no matter what happens, you’re with us now. Even if you can’t remember, you are you. And that’s all that matters.”

“Leon… but…”

“That’s right. You’re part of our SMS family now. Even if you never remember all of your old life, you can make new memories with u,” added Aisha, smiling warmly at Mina, who was brushing aside the tears that were beginning to trickle down her cheeks.

“A family… do you really mean that? Leon? Aisha?” she said.

“Of course we do!” replied Leon, heartily.

“Count on it!” added Aisha.

“Thank you so much…” began Mina, but her voice broke before she could finish and she began to sob softly.

“Now, there there,” said Aisha softly, patting Mina gently on the back. Roy pulled out a handkerchief from his pocket and offered it to Mina.

“I got that from an old friend of mine I used to fly for so I’ll need it back some time, OK?”

Mina nodded in response, dabbing at her eyes with the folded square of cloth.

“Everyone, I’ll do my best for you!” she said, the tears gone now, replaced by a determined gleam in her eyes. “And together we’ll figure out what’s going on Ouroboros. Together with Aisha, Leon and Major Focker!”

Now Aisha looked like she was going to cry.

“Mina… saying things like that, it’s like you’re our kid who’s all grown up!”

“I don’t see any two people here that could be parents,” Leon said flatly.

“If I were you I wouldn’t object too strongly, Kid,” said Roy, with a shark-like grin.

Mina giggled a bit at that, now much happier than she had been a moment ago.

“I’m really glad I got to meet you all. Leon, Aisha, “uncle” Roy.”

“Uncle?! So, wait, now I’m part of this too? I dunno if I’m quite old enough yet to be an uncle…” grumbled the elder pilot.

“I’m glad too, Mina,” said Aisha.

“Me too,” added Leon.

“A toast to our new family!” said Aisha, walking over to the bar top and filling coffee mugs for the three of them, as Roy was already sipping out of his own. They clunked the mugs together and took deep pulls… until Mina choked on the hot liquid and spilled it all down her front.

“What is that stuff?” she spluttered, “It tastes terrible!”

“My fault! I should have known you might do that if you never have had coffee before!” said Aisha as she led Mina towards the door and the nearest bathroom.

“I’ve got a feeling that my life is going to be a whole lot more stranger,” remarked Roy as he turned his head to look out the big window.


End file.
